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As can be seen, little is still known about the nature of the virus. This has made funding for drug therapy research sparse — no vaccine or cure has yet been approved. Although scientists have recently found potential therapy using a previously developed dengue vaccine, Fauci says that a vaccine is “unlikely to be widely available for a few years,” and for now, officials recommend prevention as the solution. By using protection against mosquito bites and eliminating sources of mosquito breeding such as standing water, individuals can prevent the Zika virus from continuing to spread.
Though the emergence of Zika virus has alarmed the public, the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses are not unfamiliar.
Scientists, politicians, and public health experts continue to work together to combat this disease — just like they have in the past for dengue, West Nile, and yellow fever — and are making progress towards controlling its transmission. As Fauci says, “it has already reinforced one important lesson: in our human dominated world, urban crowding, constant international travel, and other behaviors combined with human-caused microperturbations in ecologic balance can cause innumerable slumbering infectious agents to emerge unexpectedly.”