Dr. Kate Tulenko, VP of health systems innovation at IntraHealth International, reports on Zika, and discusses why efforts from the health care force have remained slow. 

Excerpt: 

The Zika epidemic has spread like wildfire through Latin America. Yet the global and national responses have remained slow. The sluggish response to the fast-spreading Zika virus—which is associated with severe microcephaly and other brain malformations in the infants of infected mothers, and with paralysis in adults—has resulted in copious hand-wringing throughout the global health community.

We expected faster action, especially in more advanced countries. But throughout the Americas, we have been slow to invest in the resources and research necessary to address the virus quickly. 

As a result, mosquito-transmitted Zika is now in 33 countries and territories in the Americas, and 50 countries have been affected worldwide. Even the US has seen domestically acquired cases in Puerto Rica and the US Virgin Islands. Within a year, a quarter of Puerto Rico’s population could be infected with the Zika virus, according to predictions from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Eventually, the agency says, that number could rise to 80% or more. 

View the magazine article, titled Zika: The Cost of Doing Nothing starting on page 21.