Zika: Colombia cases in pregnant women double in a week

The Centers for Disease Control this month recommended that pregnant women consider postponing travel to affected areas, and health officials in El Salvador have advised women to delay pregnancy until 2018.

“The issue with Zika is related to an association actually that has been discovered in Brazil, of pregnant women who get infected probably in their first trimester”, said Dr. Arruda. “If you are pregnant you should try to limit your travel to those areas”. Health care providers should ask all pregnant women about recent travel.

Most people exposed to Zika, a tropical virus spread by mosquitoes, suffer only mild symptoms.

Expert on mosquito-borne viruses Dr Cameron Webb spoke to Sky News about the likelihood of an outbreak in Far North Queensland, and said the state is well equipped to deal with the virus. Zika typically lasts a few days to a week, and it is uncommon for it to be severe enough to require hospitalization.

The virus, which is believed to be causing deformities in children if contracted by pregnant women, is spreading rapidly around the world.

The outbreak has caused a panic in Brazil because researchers say the Zika virus may be tied to microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and incomplete brain development.

Officials stressed that if the six Bexar County patients have the virus, they would have been infected outside the United States.

The WHO said on Sunday the rapid spread of Zika in the Americas was due to a lack of immunity among a population that had not been previously exposed to the virus. “For this reason the risk of Zika virus infection in Canada is considered very low”.

The Zika virus is actively being transmitted in the Caribbean, Central and South American countries, as well as Cape Verde in Africa and Samoa. Canadian Blood Services may ban blood donations from people who have traveled to countries where the infections are endemic. It has reported around 3,700 cases of microcephaly strongly suspected to be related to Zika.

Doctors say you have to be bit by an infected mosquito to contract the virus.