A look back at the 2016 "Zika Summit"

Institut Pasteur, along with the Wellcome Trust, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, REACTing, Aviesan, US CDC and the European Commission hosted the two day International Zika Summit at the Institut Pasteur Paris campus.

The purpose of the meeting was to bring together scientists and public health professionals around the world working on Zika. With the speed and extent of this outbreak, which the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, open collaborations between researchers, the public health community and the public is needed.
 
More than 600 international researchers, academics, medical professionals, public health professionals and individuals from the scientific and public media attended the conference.  
 
Scientists presented the latest information on the epidemiological situation through the Americas, research into the neurological conditions caused by Zika virus infection, advances in diagnostics for Zika, lessons learned and advances in vector control options and vaccine development. 

The final agenda can be found here.The conference provided a venue for scientists and public health professionals to discuss the latest in Zika research and shared these openly so that public health professionals and national governments can make informed decisions about policies to protect human health.
 
The Institut Pasteur and our partners are dedicated to sharing the knowledge learned from this conference.  A number of conference speakers filmed short interviews summarizing their work and highlighting how their work leads to action.  These videos will be made available on the WHO and Institut Pasteur websites.