Zika virus: ethics preparedness for old and new challenges

In its July editorial, The Lancet Global Health drew attention to the ethical challenges posed by the Zika virus outbreak.1 The Regional Program on Bioethics at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) arranged an ethics consultation, funded by the Wellcome Trust, to provide ethically sound guidance for the outbreak. Ethicists—mostly from the Americas—and other professionals involved in the response analysed the ethical issues that affected countries had identified as most challenging, and developed ethics guidance for health-care delivery, public health, and research.