Zika vaccine work begins as WHO declares global emergency

Drugs manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur is launching an effort to research and develop a vaccine to prevent the Zika virus, after the World Health Organisation declared a global emergency over its explosive spread.

There is no treatment or vaccine for the mosquito-borne virus, which has been linked to birth defects and is in the same family of viruses as dengue. Sanofi made the first licensed dengue vaccine shot, licensed last year in Brazil after years of scientific struggle to develop one.