What to know about the tropical Zika virus in Latin America

In Brazil, 3500 children have reportedly been affected by the Zika Virus.

The mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has been linked to brain damage in thousands of babies in Brazil, is likely to spread to all countries in the Americas except for Canada and Chile, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

The organization attributes another factor to the spread of the virus: “The population of the Americas had not previously been exposed to Zika and therefore lacks immunity”.

The virus, which already has appeared in 21 countries in the Americas, can lead to fever and rash.

Doctors should ask pregnant women about their travel and certain symptoms, and – if warranted – test them for an infection with the Zika (ZEE’-ka) virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The Zika outbreak is the latest problem to hit South America’s first Olympics, coming as Brazil battles its deepest recession in generations, as well as a gargantuan corruption probe that has ensnared top politicians and some of the country’s most prominent businessmen.

“This is an illness about which there’s very little information, it’s relatively new and there’s no known treatment” Santos said about the Zika virus after a Cabinet meeting in which the government decided it would roll out a nationwide prevention campaign.

But it pointed out though that the virus, which in most infected people only means short-lived flu-like symptoms, could be transmitted through blood and had been isolated in human semen.

Your comment will be submitted for approval by an administrator. The virus cause serious health defects such as microcephaly.

Brazilian health authorities are convinced that Luiza’s condition is related to the Zika virus that infected her mother during pregnancy.

DFAT is urging pregnant women to reconsider visiting 22 nations in the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Africa and the Pacific Islands where Zika is transmitted.

In addition, the CDC recommended women postpone travel to several countries including Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Saint Martin, Suriname, Samoa, Venezuela and Puerto Rico, reported CNN.

Last week, three New Yorkers who had recently traveled outside the country were diagnosed with Zika, the Associated Press reports.

There has not been a single case in Rio de Janeiro, where the games will open on August 5. Brazil had fewer than 150 cases of microcephaly in the whole of 2014 but the number has increased to 4,000 since October and this has been linked to the Zika virus. Any decision to defer pregnancy is an individual one between a woman, her partner and her health-care provider.