More than five million people could be infected with Zika virus in the Americas this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts.
According to the Wealth Health Organization, we are expecting one of the most aggressive cases of the virus Zica in America and very soon. And most of the infected persons will not develop symptoms, but the virus, spread by mosquitoes, has been linked to brain defects in babies.
-Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in monkeys through a network that monitored yellow fever. It was later identified in humans in 1952 in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. Outbreaks of Zika virus disease have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. From the 1960s to 1980s, human infections were found across Africa and Asia, typically accompanied by mild illness. The first large outbreak of disease caused by Zika infection was reported from the Island of Yap (Federated States of Micronesia) in 2007. In July 2015 Brazil reported an association between Zika virus infection and Guillain-Barré syndrome. In October 2015 Brazil reported an association between Zika virus infection and microcephaly.-
Meanwhile, the US says it hopes to begin human vaccine trials by the end of 2016.
The head of the International Olympic Committee says steps are being taken to protect the Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Thomas Bach said the IOC would issue advice on how to keep athletes and visitors safe in Brazil, the worst affected country.
The Director of WHO Dr Margaret Chan, said Zika had gone "from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions".
She has set up a Zika "emergency team" after the "explosive" spread of the virus.
It will meet soon to decide whether Zika should be treated as a global emergency.
The last time an international emergency was declared was for the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has killed more than 11,000 people. Zika was first detected in Uganda in 1947, but has never caused an outbreak on this scale.
Brazil reported the first cases of Zika in South America in May 2015.
Most cases result in no symptoms and it is hard to test for, but WHO officials said between 500,000 and 1.5 million people had been infected in the country.
The virus has since spread to more than 20 countries in the region. At the same time there has been a steep rise in levels of microcephaly - babies born with abnormally small heads - and the rare nervous system disorder Guillain-Barre syndrome.
The link between the virus and these disorders has not been confirmed, but Doctor Chan said it was "strongly suspected" and was "deeply alarming". And she warned the situation could yet deteriorate as "this year's El Nino weather patterns are expected to increase mosquito populations greatly in many areas".
The BBC's David Shukman, said doctors were "overwhelmed" by cases of microcephaly. One hospital in the city had gone from dealing with an average of five cases a year to 300 in the past six months.
Media caption David Shukman reports from the city of Recife in north east Brazil, where it is thought more than 100,000 people could have caught the Zika virus.
Earlier, doctors writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association said Zika had "explosive pandemic potential" and said the WHO's failure to act swiftly on Ebola probably costed thousands of lives.
In a statement to the executive board meeting of the WHO, Dr Chan said: "The level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty. "Questions abound - we need to get some answers quickly.
"For all these reasons, I have decided to convene an Emergency Committee.
"I am asking the Committee for advice on the appropriate level of international concern and for recommended measures that should be undertaken in affected countries and elsewhere."
Officials from the US National Institute of Health said they had two potential Zika vaccines in development.
One that is based on an experimental West Nile vaccine could be repurposed for Zika and enter clinical trials by the end of 2016, Doctor Anthony Fauci from NIH said.
He said talks were already taking place with pharmaceutical companies, but a vaccine would not be widely available for several years.
Meanwhile Doctor Anne Schuchat, from the Centers for Disease Control confirmed there had been 31 cases of Zika in the country - all linked to travel to the affected areas.
At a news conference, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the country's response to the virus so far had been "consistent with the kind of threat that could be out there".
"At this point, here in the United States, the risk of a disease spread by mosquitoes is quite low, the January temperatures in North America are quite inhospitable to the mosquito populations." "But, obviously that's going to change," he added.
Dr Carissa Etienne, the regional-director for the WHO Pan American Health Organization, said the link between the abnormalities and Zika had not been confirmed.
But she added: "We cannot tolerate the prospect of more babies being born with neurological and other malformations and more people facing the threat of paralysis."
Source: James Gallagher, Health editor, BBC News website
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