No Case of Zika Virus in Morocco, Says Health Ministry

“While these approaches are promising, it is important to understand that we will not have a widely available, safe and effective Zika vaccine this year and probably not even in the next few years”.

The virus is mainly transmitted through the bites of infected Aedes aegyptii mosquito.

‘If you are travelling to these areas, if you are a man or a woman, pregnant or not, you should be using mosquito repellants to provide the best protection against these mosquitoes that may be transmitting Zika virus in South and Central America’.

With 20,000 people confirmed as having the virus, Colombia is now the second most infected country in the world after Brazil.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned Zika is “spreading explosively”, predicting up to 4m cases this year.

About 1.5 million Zika infections have been reported in Brazil, and 63.6 percent of those cases were women.

Prevent exposure to mosquito bites particularly during daytime as Aedes aegyptii mosquitoes are up and about mostly then.

All were infected while they were traveling overseas, according to Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus could have links with microcephaly, a fetal deformation in Brazilian babies that gives them brains smaller than normal.

Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that’s been strongly linked to severe birth defects.

Canada is expected to attend an emergency meeting hosted by the United Nations on Monday where health officials hope to come up with a plan to stop the spread of the virus.

There is no vaccine for the virus at the present.

As the devastating impacts of Zika virus hit Latin America, Australia is preparing for a potential outbreak.

The teenager, whose name has not been released, arrived in the Peruvian capital city of Lima last week from Colombia, said the minister, adding that the patient was hospitalized after showing signs of the virus including fever, rashes and joint pain, among other symptoms.

The virus is also thought to be linked to an outbreak of Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune condition that causes paralysis.