Brazil says the number of babies born with suspected microcephaly or abnormally small heads since October has now reached nearly 4,000.
In the worst affected area, about 1% of newborns have suspected microcephaly.
The Brazilian authorities believe the increase is caused by an outbreak of Zika virus. Just 150 babies were born with microcephaly in 2014.
The brain condition can be deadly or cause intellectual disability and developmental delays.

Colombia’s health minister has advised women there to delay pregnancy.
Brazil’s health ministry says there have been 3,893 suspected cases of microcephaly since October, when the authorities first noticed a surge, up from 3,500 in last week’s report.

The link with Zika has not been confirmed, but a small number of babies who died had the virus in their brain and no other explanation for the surge in microcephaly has been suggested.

Zika is generally mild and only causes symptoms in one in five people. It is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also spreads dengue and chikungunya.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35368401

UPDATE :
Officials in four Latin American and Caribbean nations have warned women to avoid pregnancy amid concerns over an illness causing severe birth defects.
Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Jamaica recommended to delay pregnancies until more was known about the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

This followed an outbreak in Brazil.

Brazil said the number of babies born with suspected microcephaly – or abnormally small heads – had reached nearly 4,000 since October.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35388842

Zika’s alarming spread: CDC investigates link to paralyzing condition, adds 8 countries to travel warning

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported this week that a dozen cases of Zika virus have been confirmed in the United States, is expanding its advisory that pregnant women should avoid travel to countries currently seeing high rates of infection.

The agency’s initial list contained 14 countries, but the CDC on Friday added eight more — in South America, the Caribbean and Polynesia — as places where the reach of the virus is growing.

The CDC now is working with authorities in Brazil to study a potential link between the mosquito-borne virus and a rare syndrome known as Guillain-Barré that can lead to paralysis. In Brazil, which is currently the epicenter of Zika, public health officials were already investigating a link between the virus and a rare birth condition called microcephaly. That country has seen nearly 3,900 suspected cases since October, with the babies involved suffering serious brain damage.

In recent days, several countries have taken drastic measures to try to combat the virus. Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador and Jamaica are all calling on women to consider delaying becoming pregnant.

So far, the known U.S. cases are of people who were traveling and likely bitten by mosquitoes while abroad — but infectious disease experts say the rapid spread of the tropical virus in the Americas may mean an outbreak here.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/01/21/zika-virus-faq-more-than-a-million-infected-globally-a-dozen-in-the-united-states/

Holy shit….

Zika virus: What you need to know about the latest global health scare.

Why is Zika dangerous?

There is no vaccine for the virus, which can cause fever, rashes, joint pains, and conjunctivitis within days of being contracted. For most of those infected, the virus causes a short illness lasting between two and seven days. However, in some rare cases, it can result in serious illness and death.

Infants are most at risk from Zika, as mothers can pass the infection on to their fetus, leading to microcephaly – a rare birth defect where babies are born with abnormally small heads and developmental delays.
Treatment for the Zika virus focuses on pain relief and fever reduction, with some patients also given antihistamines for itchy skin rashes.

Preventative measures focus on general mosquito bite prevention, such as using insecticides, and special nets and screens.

Where it came from

The Zika virus is mainly found in South America, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Southeast Asia.

The virus was first discovered in Africa in 1947, circulating in humans, animals and mosquitoes with few documented outbreaks. In wasn’t until 2007 that an Asian strain of the virus caused the first outbreak outside of Africa, in Micronesia. The same strain caused an outbreak in French Polynesia in 2013, which has since spread to the Pacific Islands and South America.

Within nine months of the first case being confirmed in the northeast of Brazil in May 2015, most Brazilian states had reported locally-acquired cases.

Brazil has seen a surge in outbreaks of the fever since 2015. The country had seen an average of 150 babies a year born with microcephaly, but from October 2015 to January 2016 that number rocketed to over 3,500, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

https://www.rt.com/news/329880-zika-virus-global-scare/