Out break of Zika virus

El Salvador urges against pregnancies until 2018 in Zika virus outbreak

 El Salvador has urged women there to avoid getting pregnant until 2018 to avoid their children developing birth defects from the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

The Zika virus is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is also known to carry the dengue, yellow fever and Chikungunya viruses.

Health experts are unsure why the virus, which was first detected in Africa in 1947 but unknown in the Americas until last year, is spreading so rapidly in Brazil and neighboring countries.
Although research is still under way, significant evidence in Brazil shows a link between Zika infections and rising cases of microcephaly, a neurological disorder in which babies are born with smaller craniums and brains.
"We'd like to suggest to all the women of fertile age that they take steps to plan their pregnancies, and avoid getting pregnant between this year and next," said Deputy Health Minister Eduardo Espinoza.
He said the government decided to make the announcement because 5,397 cases of the Zika virus had been detected in El Salvador in 2015 and the first few days of this year.
Official figures show 96 pregnant women are suspected of having contracted the virus, but so far none have had babies born with microcephaly.
In Colombia, which has the second-highest Zika infection rate after Brazil, the government is also advising women to delay becoming pregnant, but only for six to eight months.

In Brazil the number of suspected cases of microcephaly increase to 3,893 by 16 January from 3,530 cases ten days earlier.
So far, health authorities have only confirmed six cases of microcephaly where the baby was infected with the Zika virus.
The surge of cases since the virus was first detected last year in Brazil led the ministry to link it to the fetal deformations and warn pregnant women to use insect repellent to avoid mosquito bites.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel advisory last week warning pregnant women to avoid 14 countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin America affected by the virus.
Last week, US health authorities confirmed the birth of a baby with microcephaly in Hawaii to a mother who had been infected with the Zika virus while visiting Brazil last year