Microcephaly and Zika virus

“If you get infected with Zika virus, you give birth to a baby with small head. It would be great to give birth to a baby with small head.” Talks between 20-something women in an elevator caused me to smirk. They seem to misunderstand microcephaly as having a small face of actresses, which is admired by many Koreans. The circumference of a newborn baby with microcephaly measures 32 centimeters or less, which is smaller than the ordinary range (34 cm to 37 cm). If they knew that the baby’s head is smaller because its brain has not adequately developed, they would not have made such remarks. I feel like they should have translated "microcephaly" as a "small brain symptom" rather than "small head symptom."

In Brazil, a total of 4,180 babies have been born with microcephaly through Saturday last week, and 68 of them died. The cause of the disorder is Zika virus, which is transmitted by Aedes aegyptimosquito. The virus was first discovered in Uganda in 1947, but was not considered to be serious. It only came to draw massive attention after experts started suspecting that when a pregnant woman gets infected, it could cause microcephaly in her newborn baby. As scientists tried to discover the reason newborns with microcephaly started to surge in number from 150 in 2014, they came to pin down the Zika virus as the culprit. That year, people flocked to the Latin American country en masse due to the World Cup soccer finals.

Brazil is literally in complete panic. Mosquitoes will get more preval‎ent as rainy season starts in February, with the Rio Carnival also scheduled in the month, while the 2016 Olympic Games will take place in August. Economic and political situation is already on shaky ground in Brazil. If the country fails with Olympics, its own fate as a state could be in jeopardy. Authorities in Colombia and Jamaica recommend women to avoid pregnancy. The World Health Organization, which has not officially recognized link between Zika virus and microcephaly, plans to hold an emergency meeting on Monday and declare an international public health crisis. It is the second time for the U.N. health body to do so after the Ebola epidemics in 2014.

Korea, which had 186 patients who were infected with MERS and 38 deaths last year, cannot afford to consider the Zika crisis as if it is none of its business. The virus is not known to transmit through human-to-human contact or through the air, but the habitat of Aedes aegypti mosquito has expanded to include the U.S. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designated Zika virus as a Class 4 infectious disease, but pregnant women are advised not to travel to Latin America. MERS outbreaks in Korea were a fiasco that demonstrated one should never say "impossible."