In Brazil, abortion is legal in limited instances and women who give birth to infants with microcephaly bemoan the lack of support and services they are offered.
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National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has played a key role in the decades-long search for an HIV vaccine, agrees the evolving Zika outbreak is similar in some respects.
THE Ministry of Health has not recorded any confirmed cases of Zika virus this year, however they were formally notified of two cases last year in August.
The country’s health ministry said the woman travelled to Colombia, was presumably infected during the trip and is in her second trimester of pregnancy.
The statement stressed that, amid the continuing spread of the virus, authorities must ensure that their public health responses were pursued in conformity with human health-related rights obligations.
In Brazil, health officials are investigating a possible connection between the virus and babies born with brain defects and abnormally small heads.
Because Zika has been linked to microcephaly, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation scientists recommended that pregnant women take special precautions and avoid crowds during Carnival.
But many women struggle to find abortion providers even when they meet strict legal requirements and illegal abortions are widespread.
Zika is now in at least 25 countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Karen Murphy said her department is following new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued Friday after laboratory tests confirmed the first case of a sexually transmitted Zika virus infection.
The timing has raised health officials’ suspicions that the neurological condition is a complication of the mosquito-borne virus. For most people who catch the virus, it causes mild or no symptoms. It is primarily transmitted by mosquitoes.
Best estimates from Brazil health officials say there has been 497,593 and 1,482,701 cases of Zika virus since the outbreak began. The agency had earlier suggested tests only for those with symptoms of the illness, which causes a fever, rash and red eyes.
On Saturday, after a meeting with health officials, President Juan Manuel Santos said that cases of Guillain-Barre were up 66 percent.
Only about half of the domestic tickets for the game have been sold, and organisers fear the Zika outbreak could scare off foreign tourists.
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The Zika virus is “spreading explosively” in the Americas and the region may see up to four million cases of the disease strongly suspected of causing birth defects.
