Can Zika Evolve to Cause Other Complications?

Pedro Fernando da Costa Vasconcelos, MD, PhD, director of WHO Collaborating Center for Arbovirus and Research, Evandro Chagas Institute, discusses the possibility of the Zika virus evolving to cause other complications in the future.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“If you [asked] before, all scientists around the world, if Zika could cause microcephaly [or] severe malformations, including [in] the bones and so on, I’m sure that no one thought about this before. I cannot speculate if the virus will evolve and cause other syndromes [or] other kinds of diseases.

[What] we know presently is that the virus is the causing agent of microcephaly, of severe central nervous system malformations, arthrogryposis, blindness, deafness, and [other] different kinds of sequelae in these babies. But I’m not [able] to give you a [definite] answer [saying] ‘yes, the virus will evolve to cause other diseases.’ I cannot do that.”