Zika virus: Pregnant women warned to stay away from Rio Olympics

Brazil has the largest-known outbreak of the virus which has been linked to a spike in birth defects in new-born babies whose mothers were bitten by the mosquito during pregnancy.

Because the Zika virus is spreading throughout Latin America and countries in the Caribbean, the Centers for Disease Control issued a travel warning to pregnant women on January 15.

Meanwhile, US health authorities have warned women to avoid travelling to more than 20 countries in the Americas and beyond, where Zika cases have been registered.

Marcos Espinal, the head of the Pan American Health Organization’s communicable diseases department, delivered the bad news that “travel restrictions will not stop the spread of Zika” and he expected that it would spread throughout Latin America.

Typical symptoms are similar to the flu, including fever, joint pain, rash, conjunctivitis, headache and muscle pain. One has fully recovered, two are recovering without complications. There’s no specific treatment; infected people aren’t contagious.

According to a statement released late Thursday, ACOG is urging pregnant women and those planning a pregnancy to follow Zika virus travel and health guidelines recently issued by the CDC.

The illness does not pose a risk for those spending the winter in NY, state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said.

The defect causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads, which cause brain damage.

The news will affect thousands of people who are planning to travel to Brazil for the Olympics this August. Last week’s alert named: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname and Venezuela.

While the link between Zika virus infection, microcephaly and other poor pregnancy outcomes is not well understood, pregnant women in any trimester are still advised to consider postponing travel to areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing.

On Friday, the Associated Press reported that Zika virus was found in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Since an outbreak of Zika in Brazil in October, a surge in microcephaly in newborns has been reported, with nearly 4,000 cases.

Zika was first identified in rhesus monkeys in Uganda in 1947 and was reported in humans in 1952. They’re trying to discover if that change has made the virus more likely to spread and whether it’s changed the way Zika affects people.