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Although the number of Zika virus disease (ZVD) cases has declined globally since 2017, new outbreaks continue to be reported throughout the Americas, including in Puerto Rico.
As of early March 18, 2025, over 3,065 Zika cases have been reported in the Region of the Americas this year.
Last year, 42,127 ZIka cases and two related fatalities were confirmed in the Americas, with the highest proportion of cases reported in South America in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Columbia.

The spread of invasive mosquito species, such as the tiger mosquito, poses global health risks due to their potential to carry diseases such as chikungunya, dengue, malaria, and Zika.
An innovative use case in Italy connected the operational mosquito monitoring agency with OEMC tools and data to address the expanding health risk posed by climate change.

Today, the U.S. government announced launching a phase 1 clinical trial for a vaccine candidate to prevent Lassa Fever. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) says preventing illness through vaccination is a critical goal in reducing the disease burden from Lassa outbreaks. 
This new NIH-sponsored clinical trial has begun enrolling participants in a novel, first-in-human Lassa fever vaccine study at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in twenty-four countries. 
Since 2022, when Australia's government declared a Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) outbreak of National Significance, infected mosquitoes have spread this flavivirus into most of the country. Pigs have also served as an amplifier host.

Over the past thirteen years, people have been infected with the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), a respiratory illness. Most of the 2,616 cases have been reported in the Saudi Peninsula, following exposure to camels and llamas.
Without an approved MERS vaccine to protect people, about 36% of reported cases have been fatal.

The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is one of the most widely used vaccines worldwide, with about 4 billion doses administered over the past 100 years.
However, BCG is a biologic drug that uses benign bacteria, which makes it more complicated to manufacture than other drugs. This production limitation has led to decades-long vaccine shortages.
It has also been found to offer limited protection against diseases such as tuberculosis, an expanding health risk.