'Don't have kids until 2018" as horror virus that causes severe birth defects spreads

Women in Latin America and the Caribbean have been told to avoid pregnancy for two years following the outbreak of a virus that causes severe birth defects.

The Zika virus is currently rampaging through the Americas, particularly in Brazil, and can cause children to be born with microcephaly - an abnormally small head and brain.

Health officials in Jamaica, Colombia, Ecuador and El Salvador are now recommending anyone
wanting on starting a family to delay their plans until 2018.

The Zika virus is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is also known to carry the dengue, yellow fever and Chikungunya viruses.


Health experts are unsure why the virus, which was first detected in Africa in 1947 but unknown in the Americas until last year, is spreading so rapidly in Brazil and El Salvador.