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Rapid risk assessment: Zika virus disease epidemic: potential association with microcephaly and Guillain–Barré syndrome - 3rd update, 23 February 2016

Risk assessment
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European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Rapid Risk Assessment. Zika virus disease epidemic: potential association with microcephaly and Guillain–Barré syndrome. Third update, 23 February 2016. Stockholm: ECDC; 2016.

​This document assesses the risks associated with the Zika virus epidemic currently affecting countries in the Americas. It assesses the association between Zika virus infection and congenital central nervous system malformations, including microcephaly, as well as the association between Zika virus infection and Guillain–Barré syndrome.

In addition, due to the unprecedented size of the Zika virus epidemic, health services and practitioners should be alerted to the possible occurrence of neurological syndromes (GBS and other neurological syndromes such as meningitis, meningoencephalitis and myelitis according to WHO/PAHO) and potential disease complications not yet described in the scientific literature and atypical clinical presentation among specific populations (i.e. children, the elderly, immunocompromised individuals and those with sickle cell disease). This document also includes more specific options for substances of human origin, surveillance and preparedness, and discusses the risk of importation of the disease to continental Europe.

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