Pregnant woman are warned against the dangers of going to Rio Olympics 2016

Marilla Lima had Zika virus while pregnant and her son, Arthur, has microcephaly (C)NPR

Pregnant women are being warned not to travel to the Olympics in Brazil after a virus causing thousands of babies to be born with unusually small heads swept through the region. Researchers have linked the rise in Microcephaly, a neurological disorder in which infants are born with smaller craniums and brains, to the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne disease first seen in Africa in 1947. The outbreak has spread with such speed that the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now warned pregnant women not to travel to Brazil and 13 other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean - potentially affecting thousands intending to arrive in Rio for the Olympics this August.
Meanwhile, women in Brazil and Colombia have been warned to take precautions against mosquito bites, and other women not to get pregnant until the effect of Zika on unborn children is better understood. But Marcos Espinal, head of the Pan American Health Organization's communicable diseases department, said 'travel restrictions will not stop the spread of Zika' and it is likely to reach throughout Latin America.

Dejailson Arruda holds his daughter Luiza who has microcephaly (C)AP

It's a mosquito that is endemic in the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the population of the Americas was not exposed to the virus, so there's no immunity to it,' he said.
So far, Brazil has recorded 3,893 cases of microcephaly, with cases in every single state of the South American country. The condition leads to irreversible neurological damage that affects movement and vision. The number of reported deaths of deformed babies rose to 49, ministry officials said at a news conference earlier this week. But so far, health authorities have only confirmed six cases of microcephaly where the infant was infected with the mosquito-born Zika virus. Although microcephaly has not been definitively connected with Zika, experts believe there is a link, as the virus has been found in brain tissue and amniotic fluid from babies who were born with microcephaly or died in the womb, Brazil's Health Ministry said.
The Zika virus is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is also known to carry the dengue, yellow fever and Chikungunya viruses. Last week, U.S. 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. In Colombia, which has the second highest Zika infection rate after Brazil, the government is advising women to delay becoming pregnant for six to eight months to avoid the risk.

Source: DailyMail