Zika Virus Is At Least 50 Years Old. Here's Why You're Only Hearing About It Now.

As the Zika virus spreads, so has widespread alarm and confusion. The leader of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that it is "spreading explosively," estimating up to 4 million infections over the next year.  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that a U.S. outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus, which is spreading rapidly through mostly central and south America, is "likely," but the risk for local transmission is low. In Brazil, the virus has been linked to several thousand cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect which causes shrinkage of the skull and brain. 

"The level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty," WHO director-general Dr. Margaret Chan told the organization's executive board members. "We need to get some answers quickly."

To explain more, HuffPost Science talked to Dr. Arnold Monto, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, whose work focuses on the causes and prevention of infectious diseases in industrialized and developing countries. 

Why is Zika virus spreading now, when it's been around for decades in Asia and Africa? 

This is not a new virus. It's been known for 25 or 30 years but has never really spread to this extent.

This virus has been documented in Africa. It was documented creating issues in Indonesia. It was one of these things were you get a couple days of fever, a little bit of a rash, maybe some joint pain and then it goes away. It was dismissed. 

Zika had been viewed as a minor threat until we got into the situation where there were enough new cases to recognize this microcephaly situation, which has not been recognized before. 

Why have we never seen cases of microcephaly before associated with the Zika virus? 

There were not a lot of previous cases in pregnant women occurring at the same time. If only 5 percent of those infected have children with microcephaly, it would take lots of infections to have the abnormality both detected and related to Zika. Why do we see it now? Because there are so many cases occurring in an area where people are recognizing the disease. If it's occurring in a rural area in central Africa, it may not be recognized even though it's occurring at a low level. 

The reason we have not seen this before is that there were not a lot of previous cases in pregnant women occurring at the same time.

Is it common for a virus to exist in low levels for decades and then suddenly spread on a large scale? 

We've seen this in some other cases. It's really a question of finding a happy situation for transmission -- everything is really related to transmission and susceptibility. We'd seen Ebola outbreaks before, but never to the extent that we saw it in West Africa last year simply because it was allowed to move into urban areas. 

Once a virus goes from benign to 'spreading exponentially,' what comes next? 

Sooner or later -- often sooner, with something that's transmitting to this extent -- you're going to hit what we call "exhaust susceptibles." The virus is going to peak and then start going down. So that's when you see that there's crowding of susceptible individuals living in areas where vector control is difficult. It will almost certainly peak then. 

Do you think we've reached the peak point yet for the Zika virus? 

We'll see. There have been certain places where there have been intense transmission -- extreme levels have been seen in crowded disadvantaged areas of Brazil. But it's going to continue to be a problem in more suburban or rural areas. 

How do you think this outbreak will play out the U.S.? 

We're going to see occasional introductions into the United States. There may be localized transmissions in the Southern U.S. if there are introductions, but it's unlikely to spread beyond those areas and it probably will be fairly easy to control because we've got the infrastructure to do it. 

What's the best response, on both an international and a local level? 

In an area where transmission is taking place, aggressive mosquito control. In areas where transmission is not taking place, delaying travel for those pregnant to known infected areas.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Read more Zika virus coverage: 

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  Here's Why We Don't Have A Vaccine For Zika Virus

  
  


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  The Latest On Zika: Our Daily Updates

  
  


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  A Zika Outbreak In The U.S. Is 'Likely,' CDC Says

  
  


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  An Illustrated Guide To The Zika Outbreak 
  

  
  


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  Should You Get Tested For Zika Virus? A Flowchart
  

  
  


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  The Zika Virus Could Force Women To Have Unsafe Abortions
  

  
  


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  The Zika Virus Could Take A Huge Toll In The Americas

  
  


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  Hawaii Baby Contracts The First Case Of Zika Virus In The U.S.

  
  


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  Pregnant Women Shouldn't Travel To Countries With Zika Virus, CDC Says 

  
  


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  4 Things To Know About Zika's Potential Spread To The U.S.

  
  

 

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Why Bonding With Your Boss Is The Best Career Move You Can Make

This story is part of our monthlong "Work Well" initiative, which focuses on thriving in the workplace. You can find more stories from this project here.

Say what you want about brown-nosers, but people who invest in a healthy relationship with their boss have a better chance at finding career success.

This is according to Vicki Salemi, a career expert for Monster.com.

"It's always an excellent idea to bond with your boss," she told The Huffington Post. "The relationship with your boss is one of the most important ones you'll have at your current job. It'll only benefit you."

Here's why:

You'll Have A Friend In A High Place

Besides having another friend at the workplace, you'll have a significantly powerful ally, somebody who will (or should) go to bat for you in sticky situations.

It will also come in handy in the future, when you find yourself looking for a promotion or another job elsewhere. 

Think about your job down the road, Salemi said. "[Your boss] can be a referral, a great networking option or help find an internal opportunity. They can be someone who can advocate for you the most. How can they do that if they don't really get to know you?"

To that end, once you become a boss yourself, "you can learn from this dynamic and relationship to be a better manager [when that time comes]."

They'll Know Your Work Ethic

Bosses are busy. Chances are you're not their only employee. 

"You may not see it regularly, but if you don't continually check in with them, they may not know what you're doing behind the scenes," Salemi said. "You need to be proactive and make it a priority to connect with them."

Check in with them. "Bosses should appreciate that," Salemi said. Rather than waiting around for that annual review, ask to meet weekly or monthly. Tell them what you're working on, what you've accomplished, and find out what they'd like from you.

It'll Make "That Talk" More Comfortable

You'll be better positioned to ask for a raise, so think of it as professional development. "If you have that open dialogue with your boss and you feel free and welcome and invited to speak with them on a regular basis, then it shouldn't feel uncomfortable for you to ask for a raise or for more training, because you've built that relationship," Salemi said.

How do you pull this off? 

Keep It Real

While this is a purposeful move on your part, it's still a relationship, so make sure you keep it genuine (co-workers can smell a sycophant from a mile away).

There are ways to bond with your supervisor without looking like a kiss-ass, as long as you genuinely want to establish a relationship with them.

Invite Them To Something Casual

"I don't want to say be slick, but there's a certain way to go about it," Salemi said. This may not work for every type of office (or every boss), but if it feels right for you, ask them out to coffee, saying Starbucks is your favorite, or suggest a quick walk. "It doesn't have to be about business," Salemi added, so stick to lightly personal topics (without getting too personal). Ask them about their lives and open up yourself: How was your weekend? What's your New Year's Resolution? And offer yours.

"Just like the coworkers you enjoy hanging out with, you're spending time with your boss because you enjoy their camaraderie," Salemi said.

Don't Neglect Your Coworkers

Think of your friends as a garden, and water them all regularly. "You need to manage all of your relationships at work, and that includes your coworkers, too," Salemi said. "If you're getting the stink eye, continue do to what you're doing and, as long as it's authentic and organic, know you're not doing anything wrong. You're building a relationship with your boss."

Judgement might come out as jealousy, so remain a team player, especially in departmental meetings, where you should "maybe play it down, so that you don't seem so chummy or buddy-buddy. In a group dynamic, it's important that your'e a part of the team."

And Don't Forget The Ultimate Rule

It's OK to toot your own horn, Salemi emphasized. "No one's your best advocate more than you, [so] build that relationship. It will only further your career."

The Huffington Post's "Work Well" series is also part of our "What's Working" solutions-oriented journalism initiative.

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• 5 Things You Should Probably Never Say To Your Boss


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• 5 Very Good Reasons To Take A Break At Work Today

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Jimmy Carter To Make Rare Address To Britain's House Of Lords

LONDON (AP) — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will make a rare address to Britain's House of Lords on Wednesday to discuss his work to eradicate Guinea worm disease.

The 91-year-old ex-president has helped lead the successful campaign against the disease since 1986.

His office says the eradication of the painful disease spread by contaminated water is now within reach, with just 22 cases reported last year. There were an estimated 3.5 million cases each year when the Carter Center started its work to curtail the disease.

The former president's office said Saturday he will take questions after the talk and encouraged people to submit questions via Twitter to #askJimmyCarter.

Carter said in December that he is cancer free after receiving treatment for liver cancer that had spread to his brain.

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Behold, San Francisco's Open-Air Urinal

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco's iconic Dolores Park is now home to the city's first open-air urinal, the latest move to combat the destructive scourge of public urination in the City by the Bay.

The concrete circular urinal is out in the open, though plants and a screen offer some privacy. It's a welcome addition for the park that had just three toilets, which led many to relieve themselves in bushes and on buildings.

"Honestly, we were ready to go pee anywhere," San Francisco resident Aaron Cutler told news station KNTV. "So any facility is better than none."

The park now features 27 toilets, including the outdoor urinal, thanks to more than $20 million in renovations. They were the park's first upgrades in 60 years. San Francisco Recreation and Park Department spokeswoman Sarah Madland said she wasn't aware of any other cities with a public urinal.

San Francisco has a long, sometimes creative, history of dealing with public urination. In 2002, the city increased the possible fine for the crime up to $500, but that did little to deter it.

Last summer, the city painted nearly 30 walls with a repellant paint that makes urine spray back on the offender, San Francisco Public Works spokeswoman Rachel Gordon said.

Solar-powered toilets roll through city streets several afternoons a week. And city crews have inspected 10,000 light posts to make sure they won't fall over from erosion. That comes after a three-story-tall light post corroded by a likely mix of human and dog urine, and weighed down by a large banner, toppled.

"Dolores Park has seen an exponential increase in the number of visitors: On a sunny Saturday, it can host between 7,000 and 10,000 people," Madland said. "One of the goals of the renovation was to address the littering and public urination issues that were rampant at the park."

Along with the open-air urinal, attendants are manning 10 public toilets to encourage people to use them. They clean and restock supplies and make sure people don't use drugs or sleep inside the restrooms.

"The more options we can give them to relieve themselves, the better for the parkgoers," San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener said. "The better it is for neighbors."

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12 Steps To Let Go Of A Grudge

A grudge is a worn, ugly, itchy sweater you can't get rid of – because if you do, how will you stay warm? Nursing a grievance is part of human nature: At some point, almost everyone does it. Freeing yourself from a festering grudge that's taken on a life of its own isn't easy. But the relief and lightness you'll feel are worth it. Below, therapists explain how grudges hurt you and outline steps for letting go.

The Unforgiven

The unfaithful partner, the uncaring parent, the ex-best friend who shunned you. The workplace bully, the criminal, even your younger self. You have a genuine grievance. Now what?

After a betrayal like infidelity, the urge to protect yourself from further hurt or pain is common, says Jeff Harris, program manager for the employee assistance program at the University of Southern California. 

"We recognize that we've been hurt and are out of power and may be vulnerable," says Harris, a licensed marriage, family and child counselor. "We don't like that vulnerability, and that's OK – that's adaptive." Hanging onto the hurt can be a "power bargaining chip" in a relationship, he says, one the injured partner can play at any time: "Don't bring up your complaint about me – remember when?"

Continuing to keep a partner at arm's length from mistrust prevents the relationship from becoming deeper and more satisfying, Harris says, even when a partner offers an apology and actively changes his or her behavior.

Sometimes, of course, that apology never comes. In the absence of hearing "I'm sorry," or without any sense that the person who's harmed you cares that you've suffered, it's as if "scar tissue" forms, says Nancy Colier, a psychotherapist and interfaith minister in private practice in New York City.

"We can hold this out for others to see: 'I was wronged, and I'm angry,' as a way to get some kind of caring," Colier says. "Rather than an authentic experience of caring, it becomes kind of sedimentized to our identity, as one who was wronged, 'so therefore I'm deserving of kindness.'"

Grudges have a corrosive effect on your emotional and physical health. Being stuck in an angry, unforgiving state puts your body into fight-or-flight mode, explained Dr. Karen Swartz, ​a Johns Hopkins psychiatrist, in a July 2014 article on the healing power of forgiveness. Hormones that are released can raise your blood pressure and heart rate and put you on edge. And the negative, untrusting mindset you hold may spill into other relationships.

Steps for Letting Go

Grudges take time to grow, and getting rid of them is a process. You can follow these steps on your own, or a therapist can help you through.

1. Acknowledge the hurt. You were wronged, and that's real. Describing what happened and how it made you feel is a start – whether you write it in a journal or in a letter you might never send to the person at the center of your grudge. Telling these truths can be "an incredibly powerful process, when you get them in the imaginary chair and express anger," Colier says. And, Harris advises, "Give yourself credit for what you've done to try to cope with the original offense."

2. Decide to forgive. Forgiving someone who hurt you is a gift you give to yourself. It doesn't mean you have to forget the offense or reconcile. It's not about getting the other person to act differently. It might even be forgiving yourself for something you've done or how you've behaved, along with trying to make amends.

3. Realize forgiving isn't condoning. "Acceptance does not equal agreement," Harris says. "People may have a well-practiced sense of justice and fairness, and even though they logically get it – that it's going to be important for them to let go; that they can't control something – they fear if they abandon the fight or release the anger, the perpetrator will believe that they won, or that the victim agrees with what was done." What acceptance really means, he says, is, "I can't go back and create a better version of the past."

4. Ask yourself: Why? People realize the grudge is a problem when they sense their own evolution being stymied, Colier says. They're almost bored, and the grievance is starting to feel old and as if it doesn't matter as much anymore. And yet … letting go feels threatening, she says, because it takes away the default of "Look what happened to me." You also might be anxious that losing the grudge will leave you empty. Instead, you're making room for healthier feelings to fill that space. 

5. Consider the trade-off. "Connect to the benefits that will come to you when you make a commitment to forgive and let go," Harris says. "Often, those are peace of mind, regaining personal energy that has been squandered prosecuting your grievance over and over, a sense of freedom and the ability for trust to be rebuilt in a more genuine way."

6. Don't let anger define you. People can forgive horrible wrongs, even heinous crimes. "I was so touched by the parishioners in the church in South Carolina, who within days were publicly coming out and openly describing their forgiveness for the shooter," Harris says. "But they still had a right to see that justice would be carried out. They all needed that, and they wanted that. They didn't want to have the violent act of this loner define their life as something that had to be deeply angry and painful moving forward."

7. Pay attention to feedback. Close friends and partners often serve as sounding boards as you rehash painful details of past grievances. Even the most patient listeners grow weary, however. When people in your life suggest you're getting stuck, it's time to find a new narrative.

8. Change the conversation. If you're the constant confidante to a grudge-holding loved one, Colier says, you can deepen your curiosity and explore why the person needs to dwell on the past, and where they are at the present moment. But if you've just had enough, she says, be truthful. It's "totally acceptable" to say, with kindness and compassion, "I can't keep hearing that anymore. I'm not expecting you to move on, but I do need to self-care here as well."

9. Practice letting go. Empathy enables forgiveness. Recognizing the other person's perspective – that he or she has unresolved pain, too, or that acting in their self-interest may unavoidably conflict with yours – can help you deal with your hurt. Visualization, such as imagining a thick rope connecting you to the person you want to forgive, and then letting the rope go, is one exercise. Daily affirmations, journal writing, meditation and monitoring your thoughts and attitude will all help.

10. Slough off victimhood. Colier recalls a woman who spent years raging about her childhood with an uncaring mother. Whatever happened in adulthood, all roads led back to these mother-daughter issues, allowing her to put her anger "in one big vat." Eventually, though, "she looked at how important this pissed-off, wronged person [herself] had always been to her," Colier says. "What she started to realize was how it had not served her. How it had not allowed her ever to be vulnerable."

11. Embrace yourself. Letting go of a grudge brings about revelation and transformation, as Colier saw with the woman she described: "This whole different person emerged – who had layers, who had texture, who could feel," she says.

12. Build grace. "I encourage [people] to adopt an advanced form of forgiveness, what I call grace," Harris says. "To practice grace is to prepackage forgiveness and set it on the shelf, in anticipation of a future hurtful action from someone who matters to you: a spouse, partner, child, parent or co-worker. When we've already forgiven others for future offenses, we bypass the formation of grudges altogether."

12 Steps To Let Go Of A Grudge was originally published on U.S. News & World Report. 

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ICYMI: Mapping Zika And Why Some People Can't Let Breakups Go

ICYMI Health features what we're reading this week.

This week, as news about Brazil's Zika virus dominated our social media feeds, our graphics editor carefully diagrammed the illness for us -- outlining the virus' origin, mapping its spread, and pinpointing Zika-carrying mosquito territory -- all in easy-to-read illustrations. Clearly, we were impressed.

In lighter news, we read up on the psychology of why some people take breakups harder than others, and chuckled over a humorous essay about a digital detox gone wrong.

Read on and tell us in the comments: What did you read and love this week?

1. An Illustrated Guide To The Zika Outbreak -- The Huffington Post

At-a-glance graphics illustrate where the Zika virus originated, how it spread and who is most effected by the disease. 

Researchers are still confirming the link between Zika virus and conditions like microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome, but countries where the virus is widespread -- including Brazil, Colombia and El Salvador -- are already advising women to delay pregnancy. 

2. The Countries Where People Are Most Emotionally Complex -- The Atlantic 

Countries like Japan, Russia and India -- where citizens tend to place a higher value on interdependence -- are able to experience multiple emotions at once, an ability that psychologists refer to as "emotional complexity."

People from Western countries are more likely to think that their emotions come from within themselves.

3. The Zika Virus Could Force Women To Have Unsafe Abortions -- The Huffington Post

Anti-abortion laws in some Zika-afflicted countries mean women who are already pregnant could face the prospect of dangerous illegal abortions if they contract the virus.

"Imagine you're pregnant already, and then you discover you have this virus, and then you discover that this virus causes this condition in the fetus," said Anu Kumar, executive vice president of the global abortion rights non-profit IPAS. "Then you're faced with the decision of, what do you want to do with this?"

4. The Useless Agony Of Going Offline -- New Yorker

When a writer tries to ditch his electronic devices over a long holiday weekend, he hopes to become less reliant on them, but instead realizes how much his devices enhance his life.

With thirty minutes remaining in the experiment, during an epic, multi-hour Boggle session, I asked my wife if she had noticed anything different about me during the past few days. She paused for a moment, and looked me up and down. "Oh my God," she yelled, "did you try to shave your eyebrows?" Wait, what? I had not.

5. Journal Editors To Researchers: Show Everyone Your Clinical Data -- NPR

A new proposal by the leading medical journal editors to require researchers to share their clinical trial data could encourage innovation in the industry and ward off fabricated data -- but many scientists are reluctant to share their work.

Inaccessible data is a problem rife throughout medical science. Industry traditionally held its data close -- but so did academics. These researchers have felt that they deserved the right to future papers for all their hard work gathering the original data. And maybe they didn't want others examining their work.

6. Why Some People Take Breakups Harder Than Others -- The Atlantic

The stories we tell ourselves about why our relationships end affects how easily we can move on from romantic rejection.

This rejection was like opening Pandora's Box, and concepts like love and trust became fantasies that never really existed.

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