El Salvador Urges Women Not to Get Pregnant Until 2018 Amid Zika Virus Outbreak

Photo: MARVIN RECINOS/AFP/Getty

As panic swirls around theZika virus, a mosquito-borne virus linked to severe brain damage in infants, El Salvador has issued an unusual piece of advice to women: stop getting pregnant.

The Central American nation has advised all women to hold off on getting pregnant until 2018, when the government projects the dangers of the virus will be better understood, theNew York Timesreports.

Zika has been linked tomicrocephaly, a rare condition that causes incomplete brain development in infants. While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated that further research on this link is needed, the outbreak of the virus in Brazil presents alarming data. There, more than a million people have been infected and nearly 4,000 children have been born with the condition.

Zika has already taken hold in 21 countries and territories of the Americas and will almost certainly continue to spread, the World Health Organization said in anupdate Sunday.

Officials in Colombia and Ecuador have also urged women to delay becoming pregnant until the dangers of the virus are better understood, the New York Times reports.

While some health officials have urged pregnant woman to avoid the 2016 Olympics in Rio to avoid exposure to Zika infected mosquitos, the country’s Ministry of Health has promised assist organizers in preventing the spread of the virus.

source: people.com