Control border for Zika

Zika has just given the United States a new reason to control its southern border. The disease that originated in Africa 69 years ago has suddenly caused the World Health Organization to wake up.

WHO has admitted that Zika has been overlooked and it is expected to possibly explode to 4 million cases in the Americas over the next year. This mosquito-borne virus is linked to a sharp spike in a rare birth defect in Brazil: microcephaly, which causes babies to have abnormally small heads. Neither Brazil or WHO has a vaccine. It may be five to seven years before one is available.

Thirty-one U.S. travelers were infected last year. The WHO director general has admitted they were at fault for not having a plan to look for a vaccine. The Zika virus is now in more than 20 countries and our main defense in America is controlling mosquitoes and our southern border. Unfortunately, that is something that we have not been very good at in the past years. Is it wake-up time yet?

Gerald Ray

Spokane