clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile
Will you help keep Vox free? Vox's journalism is free, so that everyone can understand our world. Reader support helps us do that. Will you give today?

Filed under:

The Zika virus, explained in less than 3 minutes

By Julia Belluz, Sarah Turbin, and Gina Barton

Like this video? Subscribe to Vox on YouTube.


The World Health Organization has declared the Zika virus outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern."

Until last year, Zika, which is spread by mosquitoes, was mainly confined to Africa and Asia. But in 2015 the disease made the leap to the Western Hemisphere, affecting more than a million people in Brazil.

It has since spread across Latin America and the Caribbean, and experts expect that the US will also see active transmission of the virus by summer.

The virus causes fairly mild symptoms in adults, but doctors suspect it can be passed to unborn fetuses, and they're seeing a spike in birth defects correlated with the spread of Zika.

Watch the video above to learn more about the Zika virus and how it spreads.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

Yes, I'll give $5/month
Video

Why cheating is allowed on game shows

Video

The rise of Xi Jinping, explained

Video

How bats carry deadly diseases without dying

View all stories in Video