Zika virus forces WHO to declare public health emergency

The World Health Organization declared a "public health emergency of international concern" on Monday morning due to the clusters of microcephaly and other neurological abnormalities that may be caused by Zika virus.

This designation, also known as PHEIC, has only been applied to three other illnesses in the past -- most recently to Ebola during the 2014 to 2015 outbreak in West Africa.

The determination is intended to mobilize an international response to combat mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has spread throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean and is suspected to be the cause of a sharp rise in birth defects in Brazil.

Read the Huffington Post story - “WHO Declares Public Health Emergency Around Zika Virus.”