Colombia raises alert on Zika for infected pregnant women, general public

Colombian health authorities Sunday urged measures against the mosquito-borne Zika virus, especially for the country's more than 2,100 infected pregnant women, due to the high risk for their babies to be born with microcephaly.

As of now, 2,116 pregnant women have been infected, and authorities are on the alert for potential complications, a surveillance report by the country's Ministry of Health revealed last week.

Health agencies studying the Zika outbreaks have found evidence for a possible link between the Zika virus and microcephaly. However, more research is needed to confirm the link. Other potential causes are also being investigated.

The Colombian department of Norte de Santander, located in the eastern region bordering Venezuela, has seen the largest number of Zika-infected pregnant women with 769 cases, and is followed by Huila department with 217 cases.

The ministry suggested the country's women postpone pregnancy in order to prevent an outbreak of an "explosive pandemic" of microcephaly caused by the virus, which would incur brain damage and shrunken heads on babies.

The United States also advised Colombia's pregnant women to reconsider travel to 23 countries and territories with Zika outbreaks, mainly located in Central and South America.

All over the country, there have been 20,297 cases of the Zika virus disease, spreading across 193 municipalities in 28 departments.

The director of Colombia's National Federation of Departments, Amylkar Acosta, told local media that it is necessary that mayors and governors of the country optimize prevention plans and their control over the breeding of mosquitoes that transmit the virus.

"At first there was the Chikungunya, now it's the Zika that can spread rapidly in this climate, and it is estimated that at least 400,000 Colombians will be infected by the end of the outbreak," Acosta said.

The Colombian government has also ordered to deploy armed forces to try to eradicate the mosquitoes. Their work includes removing potential breeding sites that can hold water such as buckets, tires and flower pots, and reducing contact between mosquitoes and people.

Other preventative measures involve promoting the use of insect repellent, wearing clothes (preferably light-colored) that cover the body as much as possible, using physical barriers such as screens, closed doors and windows, and mosquito nets.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said that people with the Zika virus would usually experience symptoms such as fever, headache, malaise, conjunctivitis, skin rashes, muscle and joint pain, similar to those caused by other arbovirus infections such as dengue. There is no specific treatment or vaccine currently available.

The Zika virus is transmitted to people through the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito of the Aedes genus. Such mosquitoes mainly live in Colombia's tropical regions. The mosquitoes also transmit dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.

During the recent large-scale outbreaks in Brazil and Colombia, the national health authorities of the two nations have reported potential neurological and autoimmune complications of the Zika virus disease. In Brazil, local health authorities have witnessed an increase in the infections of the virus among the general public as well as an increase in babies born with microcephaly in northeastern Brazil.

More than 13 countries in the Americas have also reported sporadic Zika virus infections, which have sparked fears of rapid geographic expansion of the virus. Endi