How to fight Zika and other diseases

"The Zika virus is not present in Australian mosquitoes and there is no risk to the community that this condition will be passed on," Queensland Health Minister Jill Hennessy says

THE Zika virus headlines may seem disturbingly familiar – with good reason. Although Zika and Ebola are very different contagions that cause distinctive diseases, there are start­ling similarities in how the two epi­demics unfolded.

Both were detected late. By the time health authorities understood that we were in the midst of an Ebola outbreak, the virus had been spreading for months and across multiple international borders.