The Zika Virus: E-Books to Spread Awareness

As it continues to spread, the Zika virus is increasingly becoming a cause for serious concern. It has now spread to more than 30 countries and, with no cure or vaccine available, the World Health Organization recently declared the virus to be a public health emergency of international concern.

The outbreak has been extremely hard to contain in large part due to a simple lack of available information and understanding around the disease. This is a big problem. Without knowledge on how to prevent infection, individuals significantly augment their susceptibility to the disease.

That’s where digital books can play a crucial role in getting the right information to those who are most at risk. What’s more, digital books can be made available in a time-sensitive manner, which is essential when the risk is so palpable. And that’s why we’ve urgently added a Zika Book Series to our Worldreader library. So that anyone with access to a mobile phone can find out all about what Zika is, what the symptoms are, how to diagnose the disease and, most importantly, how to prevent infection.

The series is based on information provided by the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is available in four languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. Since the majority of countries impacted by Zika are in the Americas, the availability in local languages will ensure that those most concerned can truly benefit from the information.

Armed with this knowledge, readers will not only be able to take measures to prevent their own infection but, on a larger scale, they will play a real role in the control of the epidemic.

To read Worldreader’s new Zika Series, open any web browser on your mobile phone and type in read.worldreader.org.