Editor's note: This story was updated Jan. 15, 2016, with the CDC issuing a travel warning for 13 countries and Puerto Rico.
Jan. 7, 2016 -- The mosquito-borne Zika virus has prompted a CDC travel warning for parts of Central America, South America and the Caribbean, with the agency cautioning pregnant women to "consider postponing travel" to 14 countries and territories.
The virus has caused panic in Brazil since it first appeared there in May. Nearly 3,500 babies in Brazil have been born with microcephaly, which causes devastating, sometimes fatal brain damage and can result in a miscarriage or stillbirth. Although a link between the two isn’t definitely established, the Brazilian government has taken the unprecedented step of advising women to avoid pregnancy until the crisis has been solved.
“There’s a lot of fear in Brazil. People are really scared of this virus,” says Zika researcher Scott Weaver, PhD, director of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. “I have colleagues working there who see four to five births a day of infants with microcephaly.”
Earlier this month, officials in Harris County, Texas, said the Zika virus was confirmed in a person who recently returned from Latin America. Officials had predicted the virus would likely spread to the U.S., especially after Zika was diagnosed for the first time in Puerto Rico late last month. Since then, other cases have been discovered in returning travelers, the CDC says, although no locally transmitted cases have been reported.
The CDC travel warning covers countries where Zika transmission is ongoing: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela, and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
Pregnant women in any trimester are advised to avoid travel to those areas, the CDC says. Those who must travel, as well as women who are thinking about becoming pregnant, should talk to their doctor first and "strictly follow steps to avoid mosquito bites" during their trip.
To better understand the disease, its risks, and what it may mean for Americans, WebMD turned to infectious disease researchers such as Weaver as well as experts at the CDC and elsewhere.
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