The United States warned pregnant women Friday to avoid travel to 14 countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin America due to the mosquito-borne Zika virus, linked to birth defects.
"The virus is spreading fairly rapidly through the Americas," said Lyle Petersen, director of the division of vector-borne infectious diseases at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a conference call with reporters.
"We thought it was very important to warn people as soon as possible."
The level two travel alert applies to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
"Pregnant women in any trimester should consider postponing travel to the areas where Zika virustransmission is ongoing," said the CDC.
Zika virus can cause fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis, with symptoms usually lasting under a week.
But in pregnant women, the virus can spread to the fetus and cause brain shrinkage or death.
Along with a rise in Zika cases in Brazil, more than 3,500 cases of microcephaly have been documented in the country between October 2015 and January 2016.
Four of those cases have recently been analyzed, showing that babies were infected with Zika viruswhile they were in the womb and that it reached their brains.
Two of the cases involved miscarriages, and two of the babies died soon after birth.
"All four mothers reported having experienced a fever and rash illness consistent with Zika virusdisease during their pregnancies," said the CDC.
"Genetic sequence analysis showed that the virus in the four cases was the same as the Zika virusstrain currently circulating in Brazil."
