"US scientists have urged the World Health Organisation to take urgent action over the Zika virus,
which they say has "explosive pandemic potential".
Zika, linked to shrunken brains in children, has caused panic in Brazil.
The Brazilian President, Dilma Roussef, has urged Latin America to unite in combating the virus.
There is no cure for the virus and the hunt is on for a vaccine, led by scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
The researchers have visited Brazil to carry out research and collect samples and are now analysing them in a suite of high-security laboratories in Galveston, Texas.
The Zika virus was discovered in monkeys in 1947 in Uganda's Zika Forest, with the first human case registered in Nigeria in 1954 but for decades it did not appear to pose much of a threat to people and was largely ignored by the scientific community.
It was only with an outbreak on the Micronesian island of Yap in 2007 that some researchers began to take an interest.
In the past year the virus "exploded" said Prof Weaver, sweeping through the Caribbean and Latin America "infecting probably a couple of million people".
The symptoms in adults and children are similar to those for dengue fever but generally milder, including flu-like aches, inflammation of the eyes, joint pain and rashes although some people have no symptoms at all.
In rare cases the disease may also lead to complications including Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disorder of the nervous system which can cause paralysis." BBC
Zika, linked to shrunken brains in children, has caused panic in Brazil.
The Brazilian President, Dilma Roussef, has urged Latin America to unite in combating the virus.
There is no cure for the virus and the hunt is on for a vaccine, led by scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
The researchers have visited Brazil to carry out research and collect samples and are now analysing them in a suite of high-security laboratories in Galveston, Texas.
The Zika virus was discovered in monkeys in 1947 in Uganda's Zika Forest, with the first human case registered in Nigeria in 1954 but for decades it did not appear to pose much of a threat to people and was largely ignored by the scientific community.
It was only with an outbreak on the Micronesian island of Yap in 2007 that some researchers began to take an interest.In the past year the virus "exploded" said Prof Weaver, sweeping through the Caribbean and Latin America "infecting probably a couple of million people".
The symptoms in adults and children are similar to those for dengue fever but generally milder, including flu-like aches, inflammation of the eyes, joint pain and rashes although some people have no symptoms at all.
In rare cases the disease may also lead to complications including Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disorder of the nervous system which can cause paralysis." BBC
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