"Spread of Zika Virus Prompts Travel Advisories"

"Travel warnings about the Zika virus, especially for pregnant women, are very much in the news now, but the germ was discovered more than a half century ago, and you may have already visited places where it flourishes.

As of December 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta reported evidence of transmission of the virus in at least 45 countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Pacific islands. There were cases reported in Mexico and El Salvador in November 2015, and one in Puerto Rico in December. Travelers should be concerned, but there is no need for panic.

“There are two things that make people pay attention,” said one expert, Dr. Kamran Khan, an infectious disease doctor and scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. “It showed up where it has never been before, and it is rapidly spreading. That’s because Aedes mosquitoes are widespread throughout most of Latin America and parts of the U.S.”"

Nicholas Bakalar reports for the New York Times January 20, 2016.