[Zika virus outbreak in Latin America: what are the challenges for French Guiana in April 2016?]. / Épidémie de virus Zika en Amérique latine : quels enjeux pour la Guyane française en avril 2016 ?

ABSTRACT

Started in 2015 in Brazil, an outbreak linked to a little known arbovirus, Zika virus spread throughout Latin America. This virus, considered until recently as responsible of only mild symptoms, made mention of previously unsuspected complications, with severe neurological manifestations in adults and malformations of the central nervous system, including microcephaly, in newborns of mother infected during the pregnancy. While the continent is more accustomed to the succession of arbovirus epidemics, suspected complications and the many unknowns keys of the latter arriving raise many public health issues. French Guiana, a French territory located in the north-east of the continent, combines both European level of resources and climate and issues specific to the Amazon region and Latin America. We discuss here the issues for 2016 Zika virus epidemic in our region, many of them are generalizable to neighboring countries.