Remember Zika? WHO Says It's No Longer a World Health Problem

The Zika virus, which caused a global health scare when a major epidemic broke out in Brazil in October last year, is no longer a public health emergency of "international concern," the World Health Organization, WHO, announced Friday.

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"This does not mean that Zika is no longer important," added the Director-General of WHO, David L. Heymann.

The Zika virus is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, and has been detected in 70 countries worldwide. Because of the scale of the problem, WHO have stated that a "long-term stable technical mechanism for organizing a comprehensive response" will be kept because Zika is still "a very important long-term problem."

"The Emergency Committee considers that the Zika virus and its consequences remain a persistent and important public health challenge, requiring intensive action but no longer representing a public health emergency as defined by international standards of health," adds the statement.

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In Brazil alone, 1.5 million people have been infected by Zika with over 3,500 cases of microcephaly reported between October 2015 and January 2016, according to WHO.

Much remains unknown about Zika and in people it causes only mild symptoms, including fever, sore eyes and a rash.

But pregnant women who contract the virus are put at risk of giving birth to babies with microcephaly — a birth defect which results in a baby's head being smaller than expected and usually the brain not properly developing.

There is currently no vaccine for Zika while long-term side effects remain unknown, although there have been no confirmed deaths associated with the virus so far.