More than 3,100 pregnant women are infected with the Zika virus in Colombia, the country’s president has said.
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Zika is a type of flavivirus, which means it’s mosquito-borne, like West Nile virus or yellow fever.
Brazilian officials say they suspect Zika is behind a seemingly unusual number of microcephaly cases, in which children are born with unusually small heads.
Since the Zika virus started its sweep across Latin America late previous year there have been around 4,000 cases of microcephaly, with 3,400 of those cases recorded in Brazil.
Colombian health officials reported the deaths of a man and a women in second city, Medellin, on Thursday after they were confirmed to be carriers of Zika and showed symptoms of the Guillain-Barre syndrome. In rarer cases, pregnant women can pass it to their unborn babies.
He said authorities will be increasing fumigation projects and helping families eliminate stagnant water, a chief breeding ground for mosquitoes.
It has also said pregnant women with Zika are eligible to access much-restricted abortion services.
Many women struggle to find abortion providers even when they meet strict legal requirements and illegal abortions are widespread.
The Zika virus is primarily transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, although scientists in Brazil said Friday that they found that the virus can be “active” in the saliva and urine of infected people, raising fears it could also be transmitted through bodily fluids.
‘Zika virus is spread by mosquitoes and there is no evidence that this is changing, ‘ he said. But U.S. health officials detected a case of sexual transmission of the disease in Texas this week and in Brazil, officials said they had confirmed the virus was contracted via blood transfusions.
The province of Norte de Santander had almost 5,000 cases of the virus, more than any other in the country, an epidemiological bulletin from the national health institute published on Saturday showed. Officials have urged women to delay pregnancy for six to eight months after contracting the virus.
The area with the highest proportion of preganant women with the Zika virus – close to 31% of all cases – was in the eastern Norte de Santander department.
He said: “The projection is that we could end up having 600,000 cases”.
Those who are symptomatic usually develop a fever, red eyes and rashes.
The World Health Organisation has declared an global emergency and warned Zika could infect up to four million people in the Americas and spread worldwide.
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More than 30 people in the United States have been confirmed to have Zika after traveling to an affected country.
