With health authorities warning the disease could infect up to four million people in the Americas, ministers from 14 countries held talks in Uruguay to plot their response to the growing crisis, with fears the virus could spread worldwide.
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Meanwhile in Geneva, spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly said the OHCHR was asking governments in Zika-affected countries in Latin and South America to repeal any policies that break with global standards and restrict access to sexual and reproductive health services, including abortion.
The Zika virus has spread rapidly in South America and with more than 800,000 Brazilians visiting our area a year, Governor Scott says we need to be prepared.
The virus is transmitted to people through the bite of infected female Aedes mosquitoes, the same type of mosquito that spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.
Common symptoms of Zika virus include fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes).
The Health Ministry says in a statement that the woman traveled to Colombia, was presumably infected during the trip and is in her second trimester of pregnancy.
The CDC also updated its advice to women who are already pregnant and who have been or are in Zika-affected areas. In fact, in the country of more than 200 million people, only 1,626 legal abortions were reported in 2012 by the country’s Ministry of Health, according to a 2014 RH Reality Check report.
Mexico has only 37 confirmed cases, none of them among pregnant women.
The first case of Zika virus has been confirmed in Travis County, Texas. The virus has been linked to a severe birth defect.
It said it was reinforcing instructions to blood banks that people infected with Zika or dengue not be permitted to donate blood for 30 days after full recovery from the active stage of Zika infection.
At least nine cases of the mosquito-borne illness have been detected in Florida.
The issue of most concern, experts said, is the possible link between Zika infection and microcephaly, a condition in newborns marked by abnormally small heads and brains that have not developed properly. But Scott said while campaigns aimed at eliminating stagnant water can help, they’re not enough.
Langhi said he had been told that researchers investigating the transplant case had determined that the patient contracted Zika through the transfusion, and not through a bite by the Aedes mosquito that is the virus’ main vector.
The virus has also been linked to a potentially paralysing nerve disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome in some patients.
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Brazil Summer Olympic authorities are downplaying fears that the Zika virus will disrupt this summer’s Games, scheduled to kick off in Rio de Janeiro in just six months’ time.
