Pregnant women warned not to travel to Rio Olympics

Babies across the region, and at least one in the United States, have been born with abnormally smaller heads – a condition doctors call microcephaly, which can cause brain damage.

The world’s latest health scare is a seemingly minor illness that carries a killer wrapped inside: Zika, the mosquito-borne virus sweeping Latin America, usually lasts less than a week, except when it derails a whole life.

Health officials are investigating a link between infections and subsequent birth defects, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a travel warning for travelers to Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America. The CDC also recommended women who have recently traveled to these places during their pregnancy be screened and monitored for the virus.

Brazil and several other countries have even advised women to delay getting pregnant.

Staff with LA County Public Health are working to make Zika virus a mandatory reportable disease, Dr. Ben Schwartz, deputy director of the acute communicable diseases control program told NBC4. But Dinora Martinez, a 46-year-old secretary at a private health clinic in San Salvador, said she, her husband and their two adult sons had suffered when they contracted the virus in 2015.

“However, more investigation is needed before we understand the relationship between microcephaly in babies and the Zika virus”. The symptoms resemble a mild case of the flu – headache, muscle and joint pain, and mild fever – plus a rash.

Hadyn Parry, chief executive of Oxitec, which has devised a genetic mutation that stops them reproducing, said the Olympics would be taking place during Rio’s dry season, which would reduce the risk of mosquito-borne diseases.

There has been as alarming rise in microcephaly in Brazil over the past year, with 3,893 cases reported since Jan 16.

The Zika virus has been confirmed in Africa, Asia and some Pacific Islands.

A pregnant woman waiting to be attended at the Maternal and Children’s Hospital in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Yesterday, Dr Khor said that while there have been no reported cases of Zika here yet, Singaporeans should remain vigilant.

Researchers have been wary of Zika since French Polynesia noted a jump Guillain-Barre and microcephaly cases in tandem with an outbreak of the dengue-like virus, though the populations were far smaller than in the recent outbreaks.

“We are urging residents, especially pregnant women, to check all health advisories before traveling and take preventive measures when traveling to affected countries”, said New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker.

However, mosquito bites and mother to unborn baby aren’t the only ways this virus is transmitted.