Health Officials Warn Women In Zika Affected Areas To Delay Pregnancy

There are now 22 countries blacklisted for pregnant women due to the threat of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, say US health officials.

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Even more worryingly, four Latin American and Caribbean nations warned women in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Jamaica to rethink getting pregnant until 2018 to avoid any possible complications if they’re struck down with the virus.

The link between microcephaly, a condition in which a baby’s head is born at half its normal size, and the Zika virus is highly suspect, with 4,000 cases reported in Brazil alone.

Health officials believe there’s no other way to halt the spread of the disease than by asking women in the affected nations to delay getting pregnant.

"We are doing this because I believe it's a good way to communicate the risk, to tell people that there could be serious consequences," Colombian Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria told Reuters.

However, women's rights campaigners criticised the recommendation for local women, saying they often had little choice about becoming pregnant.

"It's incredibly naive for a government to ask women to postpone getting pregnant in a context such as Colombia, where more than 50% of pregnancies are unplanned and across the region where sexual violence is prevalent," said Monica Roa, a member of Women's Link Worldwide group.

So if you’re pregnant, or planning to get pregnant in the near future, should you avoid travelling to these countries altogether?

The advice is conflicting, but the overall sentiment, particularly considering that 80 per cent of people bitten don’t exhibit symptoms, is yes, if you can.

“All pregnant women should consider postponing travel to areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing,” said the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Australia is yet to release a similar statement, though it lists Brazil as a country in which to “exercise a high degree of caution”.

“Brazil is experiencing an outbreak of the Zika virus (a dengue-like mosquito borne disease),” reads the website. “While rarely requiring hospitalisation, pregnant women should exercise particular caution as infection may cause babies to be born with cognitive impairment. The level of this advice has not changed. We continue to advise Australians to exercise a high degree of caution in Brazil.”