More than 3100 pregnant women in Colombia have Zika virus

The Colombian officials also said that three people in the country have also succumbed to the nerve disorder called the Guillian-Barre syndrome which has also been linked to the Zika virus.

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency after Brazilian authorities linked Zika to microcephaly.

Those who live in these countries and territories should protect themselves by “rigorously using mosquito protection” such as wearing repellent, long sleeves and trousers, using air conditioning and screens, Frieden said.

Women’s reproductive rights are a touchy subject in largely Catholic Latin America, but the United Nations human rights office said countries urging women to avoid pregnancy – a list that comprises Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica, and Panama – had to give them ways to control their fertility.

Brazil’s Ministry of Health on Wednesday reported 4,180 cases of Zika-related microcephaly since October, while just 147 such cases were recorded there in all of 2014.

The CDC recommended men with a pregnant partner that have traveled into areas where the virus spread, to use condoms during sex with their partner or abstain from intercourse during the pregnancy.

“The CDC recommendations are little bit more conservative – and say no travel at all”, Greiner says.

However, Mr Santos stressed there had been no Zika-linked microcephaly reported in Colombia so far, which can cause babies to be born with abnormally small heads and brains. Currently, there’s no cure or treatment for microcephaly during any stage of the baby’s development; nor, for that matter, is there a cure or vaccine for the Zika virus. Worse yet, research indicates the disease is not only spread through mosquitoes but also can be sexually transmitted between humans.

Dr Bonaldo and officials at the institute said that they had obtained the samples from two patients with Zika-like symptoms; one was found to have the virus in urine, the other had Zika in the saliva sample. For example, let’s say you catch the virus while traveling in a country with a Zika outbreak, but you don’t come down with its telltale symptoms (a mild fever, rash, or joint pain). “This is the first time we’ve demonstrated that the virus is active [in those fluids], with the potential to cause infection”, Fiocruz researcher Myrna Bonaldo said.

Dr. Garcia said her practice is developing a screening questionnaire to assess each patient’s risk for Zika virus based on her travel history.

In his address, Santos also said US medical investigators would soon arrive in his country to help probe the virus, which he said had most likely infected more than 25,600 Colombians.

Cases of Guillain-Barre, which causes weakness and sometimes paralysis, have increased in tandem with the outbreak of the Zika virus now sweeping Latin America.

The virus is having an impact on tourism, with some tourist groups canceling reservations, particularly weddings in hotels on the Caribbean island.