Brazil urged to drop abortion ban in face of Zika outbreak

That’s lead the Centers for Disease Control to warn pregnant women against traveling to Latin American countries and parts of the Caribbean, where mosquitoes are spreading Zika.

Health officials have yet to establish a direct causal relationship between Zika virus infection and birth defects, but it is strongly suspected.

An emergency committee from the World Health Organization will meet February 1 to discuss the global threat from Zika, which it says could infect as many as 4 million people in the Americas this year, based on models from the spread of dengue. In response, CDC has issued a travel alert (Level 2-Practice Enhanced Precautions) for people traveling to regions and certain countries where Zika virus transmission is ongoing.

“When the fever goes away, that person no longer has the virus in his or her blood, and for the mosquito to begin a new cycle it has to bite someone who has the virus”.

The Healthy Ministry issued an advisory against visiting 22 countries and territories: Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, Suriname, US Virgin Islands and Venezuela.

“Travelers can protect themselves by preventing mosquito bites”, the agency said in its recent travel warning.

Up to this point, there is no vaccine available for Zika, but Gaviria told Benzinga he is optimistic about the development of an emergency vaccine. Common symptoms of a Zika infection are fever, rashes, aches and pains.

It will be based on an existing cooperation agreement between Brazil’s Butantan Institute of biomedical research and the US National Institutes of Health to develop a vaccine against dengue.

Illness is usually mild, with symptoms lasting for several days to a week.

With the virus already affecting some 193 municipalities, authorities also recommended that couples delay attempts to become pregnant for six to eight months.

Typically Brazil sees about 150 microcephaly cases a year.

The Zika virus, however, is not like Ebola.

“It’s important for them to go in because we really don’t know right now whether having symptoms or not having symptoms with Zika virus infection has any impact on the possibility that there will be a birth defect in the child”, she said.

There is some evidence that in rare occasions Zika virus may be sexually transmitted, however, some scientists feel this needs additional confirmation.