Climate change may have helped spread Zika virus according to WHO scientists

Warmer and wetter conditions facilitate transmission of mosquito-borne diseases, which may have added to spread, says lead climate change scientist

The outbreak of Zika virus in Central and South America is of immediate concern to pregnant women in the region, but for some experts the situation is a glimpse of the sort of public health threats that will unfold due to climate change.

"Zika is the kind of thing we've been ranting about for 20 years," said Daniel Brooks, a biologist at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "We should've anticipated it. Whenever the planet has faced a major climate change event, man-made or not, species have moved around and their pathogens have come into contact with species with no resistance."