Virginia resident tests positive for Zika virus

Officials with the Virginia Department of Health are urging residents to be mindful when traveling after a Virginian caught the Zika virus on a trip to an affected country.

Brazil’s health minister said the country would mobilise 220,000 troops to battle the mosquito blamed for spreading a virus suspected of causing birth defects – but he also said the war was already being lost.

This is the first confirmed case of the virus in a traveler returning to Virginia.

ABC says that the health ministry said they are advising women from becoming pregnant but have not issued any official guidelines or policy statements.

Four cases have been identified in people who returned from travel in the Americas, though local transmission has not been documented in the United States.

Like this story? Like WUSA9 on Facebook.

US health authorities have warned pregnant women not to travel to 22 territories in Latin America and the Caribbean to avoid exposure to the Zika virus. The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting from several days to a week.

The virus has now spread to at least 25 countries with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning pregnant women against travelling to the “alert” areas.

World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier says the “big task” is to try to establish a link between the virus and microcephaly, which involves abnormally small heads in newborns and can affect brain development. The Zika virus can only be transmitted through one type of mosquito called the Aedes mosquito.

In the Caribbean: Barbados, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, St. Martin and Puerto Rico, including Cape Verde, off the coast of Western Africa and Samoa in the South Pacific. If that insect bites someone with the virus, it could then go on to infect another person.

Officials in El Salvador, Colombia and Brazil have suggested women stop getting pregnant until the crisis passes. Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon.

The CDC now confirms the Zika Virus is in the United States.

American Airlines’ policy, which was implemented Monday, will allow customers to receive a refund if they provide a doctor’s note stating they are unable to travel to one of four cities due pregnancy.

The virus is expected to make its way to every country in the Americas except for Chile and Canada.