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Global health authorities and government officials are mobilizing to battle the fast-spreading Zika virus, sending rapid-response teams to affected regions, issuing travel warnings for pregnant women, accelerating vaccine trials and even deploying mosquito-fighting troops to hard-hit areas in Brazil. Stung by criticism that the world’s response to the Ebola epidemic was halting and disjointed, officials in Latin America, the United States and Europe say they are determined to do better against a new foe that, in some ways, is more daunting than the hemorrhagic virus that killed 11,000 people in West Africa. (Sun and Dennis, 2/13)

In the crowded waiting room of the Vargas de Caracas hospital, the walls are decorated with peppy pro-government slogans: “It’s only possible with socialism.” But the Zika epidemic has struck as the socialist-ruled country is spiraling into economic chaos and the public health system has been stripped of many basic tools of modern medicine. Hospital patients get wheeled past closets overflowing with trash. Stray dogs wander the hospital grounds. Doctors perform surgery without sutures and gauze. (Partlow, 2/15)

These days, the virus has sparked a gold rush of its own: companies are touting products from vaccines not even tried in mice to devices that filter Zika from the blood -- leaving public health experts to determine which proposals can help halt the mosquito-borne disease’s explosive spread. (Spalding and Torsoli, 2/15)

Scientists are “weeks, not years” from developing a test for the fast-spreading Zika virus, but large-scale clinical trials for a potential vaccine are at least 18 months away, the World Health Organization announced on Friday. The W.H.O. declared Zika a global public health emergency on Feb. 1, only the fourth time it had raised such an alert. (Chan, 2/12)

As the Zika virus spreads in Latin America, Catholic leaders are warning women against using contraceptives or having abortions, even as health officials in some countries are advising women not to get pregnant because of the risk of birth defects. The challenge posed by Zika for the Roman Catholic Church comes as Pope Francis is making his first trip to Mexico, where the virus appears to be spreading. After a period of saying little, bishops in Latin America are beginning to speak up and reassert the church’s opposition to birth control and abortion — positions that in Latin America are unpopular and often disregarded, even among Catholics. (Goldstein, 2/13)

There are currently more than 200 suspected cases of Zika virus in American Samoa, local officials say, announcing that the U.S. territory has at least four confirmed cases — including one patient who is pregnant. The territory's acting governor, Lt. Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga, "declared a Zika epidemic for American Samoa" after consulting with health officials at the end of last week, Samoa News reports. (Chappell, 2/15)

A Baltimore-based research consortium is forming a task force of leading scientists from around the world, including renowned AIDS researcher Dr. Robert Gallo, to better understand the Zika virus and quickly develop a vaccine. The task force is being convened by the Global Virus Network, a group of 35 scientific research centers across the globe that work to prevent the spread of deadly viruses. (McDaniels, 2/15)

More than 200 people died in hospitals and nursing homes in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, leading to widespread agreement that health care preparedness in the United States needed dramatic improvement. The chaotic evacuations of more than 6,400 hospital and nursing-home patients in New York City after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 reinforced concern about the readiness of health care providers during emergencies. Despite repeated calls for change, however, and billions of dollars in disaster-related costs for health care providers, federal rules do not require that critical medical institutions make even minimal preparations for major emergencies, from hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes to bioterrorist attacks and infectious epidemics such as Ebola and Zika. (Fink, 2/13)