Pregnant? Why you might think twice about heading for the sun in future

  • Health
Pregnant women may want to avoid areas that have had instances of Zika Credit: Andrew Matthews/PA

For those expecting a baby there have always been some countries you might choose to avoid, wary of disease or inadequate medical facilities. But this week many more in Latin America and the Caribbean have been added to that list - because of the growing threat of an emerging virus called Zika.

It might feel like a mere inconvenience to pick up an illness whose worst symptoms are low grade fever, a mild rash and conjunctivitis. But for an unborn child in the womb, the consequences of a mum-to-be getting Zika can be catastrophic, even if the embryo is in the earliest of stages.

That is the reality for pregnant women in Brazil right now, where most states have the mosquito-borne virus.

The country has witnessed a devastating explosion in the number of children being born with smaller heads or brains than usual - the medical name is Microcephaly - and with 30 more cases than any year since 2010 the evidence suggests it is being caused by the Zika virus destroying structures in the unborn child's brain.

A baby suspected of being affected by the 'Zika' virus Credit: CCTV

There is no cure for it, nor can a woman find out if her child has been affected until around the 24th week of pregnancy. Not that termination was even an option for the 4000 couples affected already in Brazil - where abortion is illegal.

Scientists are conducting various tests to see if the virus can be sexually transmitted Credit: .

There is no vaccine for Zika either - although the race is on to find one.

In Ebola-hit Africa clinical trials that would normally take 18 months were completed in 6 weeks and a similar international effort is needed in South America. At the moment, the authorities in Brazil, El Salvador and even Jamaica have resorted to advising women to avoid getting pregnant right now.

What might sharpen minds and loosen governmental purse-strings is how fast Zika could spread. The World Health Organisation warned today it could affect all of the Americas, bar Chile and Canada. But the reality may be worse still.

The Zika virus can't be caught from human to human contact - so you won't get it from someone travelling home with it to the UK. Instead it is transmitted by Aedes mosquitos which also carry dengue. And yet - despite determined control programmes - no one has managed to eradicate them.

Professor Laura Rodrigues, professor of infectious disease epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine says that means Zika could now affect any area where dengue fever is widespread.

She said "Wherever there is dengue, wherever there is mosquito, then it will spread. It is not just the Americas. I think there is a very large chance it is in Asia too".

The Zika virus is carried by mosquitos Credit: .

Before 1970 only nine countries had experienced severe dengue outbreaks. In the past few decades our changing climate means the number of countries affected has become more than a hundred - from Africa, and Asia to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific. In the past 5 years there have been cases in Florida, Madeira, Portugal and France with the WHO stating "The threat of a possible outbreak of dengue fever in Europe now exists".

And that means that although Zika may feel like a Latin American problem, it has the potential to affect us in future much closer to our shores.

Right now though, a generation of mothers and children on the other side of the globe are being dealt the toughest of hands.

As Professor Trudie Lang, Professor of Global Health Research at the University of Oxford, puts it; "Here we are again. As with Ebola, we have no drugs and no vaccines. We need international collaboration, partnerships and funding for research - and we need to get moving as quickly as we can".