Caribbean Says Zika No Longer an Issue. Doctors Say Not So Fast

On Oct. 18, the Caribbean Public Health Agency was celebrating and promoting good news: the World Health Organization (WHO) was no longer classifying its islands as having active virus transmission. Anguilla blasted a press release to travel professionals, with a subject line proclaiming: “Anguilla Removed from List of Countries With Active Zika Transmission.” It may as well have been an excuse for a new regional holiday.

Here’s what actually happened that day: Instead of changing the status of any country on its Zika watch map, the WHO discarded its classification system entirely, a move that signified that the virus had shifted from epidemic to long-term management mode.