On this month's cover, mothers and their children with the birth defect microcephaly-likely attributed to Zika virus-wait for care at Hospital Oswaldo Cruz in Recife, Brazil. Brazil is considered the epicenter of the Zika epidemic, and Recife is its hardest-hit city: as of June 2016, the city had more than a third of Brazil's microcephaly cases. Babies born with microcephaly, for which there is no specific treatment, have smaller heads than others and may face lifelong challenges such as developmental delay; intellectual disability; seizures; and problems with hearing, vision, and movement.
Although the World Health Organization declared in November that Zika virus is no longer a global health emergency, it emphasized that the virus and its associated consequences remain a "significant enduring public health challenge." This is especially true in impoverished areas such as Recife, where many parents of children born with Zika-related conditions lack adequate financial resources to care for them. And as mosquito activity peaks during Brazil's summer months, the country could potentially face a Zika resurgence.
For more on the Zika crisis and other top news stories of the past year, see "The Year in Review: 2016" in this issue.-Diane Szulecki, associate editor