The Zika & Arbovirus Outbreaks channel on F1000Research is launched
The Zika & Arbovirus Outbreaks channel - recently launched by F1000Research - enables publishing research and clinical findings, data, protocols and presentations on all topics relating to Zika and other arboviruses, without limitation of article size, type or perceived impact. Submit free your Research to Zika & Arbovirus Outbreaks channel: all items submitted to this channel will be waived and prioritized!
F1000Research is an Open Science publishing platform offering immediate free publication of posters, slides and articles with no editorial bias. All articles benefit from transparent peer review and the inclusion of all source data.
F1000Research launched (on 2 February, 2016) the Zika & Arbovirus Outbreaks (ZAO) channel to enable research, clinical findings and data to be published and openly shared with the wider research and medical community within days of submission.
Different types of findings - data sets (either as part of a Research Article or associated with a short Data Note) - are encouraged, including but limited to: vector biology and control, clinical case reports, epidemiological modeling, diagnostic test development, protocols, basic biology, mechanisms of disease, clinical trials, health policy and any other information relevant to Zika and other arboviruses.
Zika is “the new major global health concern, not the new Ebola”. Sharing of open data was crucial in the Ebola response and has been incorporated into recommendations for the next pandemic which is looking more and more likely to be Zika.
All arboviruses “have the potential to take us by surprise, and with climate change enabling their vectors to expand their range into regions where people have no immunity to these viruses, future major outbreaks are all the more likely”.
Zika was previously considered to be a relatively insignificant disease, occasionally causing a mild fever, conjunctivitis and not much more. Now it is being implicated in far more serious conditions, specifically microcephaly, a neurodevelopmental disorder resulting in smaller-than-expected head size in infants, and Guillain-Barré syndrome, an auto-immune condition affecting the peripheral nervous system.
Direct research findings focusing on eliminating Zika by controlling Aedes populations will simultaneously help control several other arboviruses (arthropod borne viruses). Moreover, sharing research on the Zika virus itself may also provide concomitant benefits in understanding the biology of other flaviviruses such as yellow fever and dengue, chikungunya, West Nile, Rift Valley, Japanese Encephalitis, tick-borne encephalitis and Kysanur forest disease viruses, as well as their mosquito (Aedes and Culex spp) and tick vectors. As Zika is spreading through the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and albopictus, research into better controlling these two species will be especially helpful in quickly containing the outbreak.
Rapidly capturing and disseminating data and knowledge trough ZAO will help tackle the current epidemic and prevent (or at least prepare us for) the next one!
Source: The Zika & Arbovirus Outbreaks channel on F1000Research
