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           Advocates Criticize Advice to Delay Pregnancy Due to Zika

   by VOA News

   Officials in at least three Latin American and Caribbean countries have
   cautioned women to avoid becoming pregnant because of the severe birth
   defects caused by the Zika virus, but women's advocates say that advice
   is not appropriate.

   Colombia, El Salvador and Jamaica have advised women to delay pregnancy
   after a number of babies born with brain defects caused by the virus
   have emerged in Brazil.

   Alejandro Gavinia, Colombia's health minister said Colombia is advising
   the measure because "it's a good way to communicate the risk, to tell
   people that there could be serious consequences."

   Monica Roa, vice president of strategy for Women's Link Worldwide, a
   women's rights group, said "It's incredibly naïve for a government to
   ask women to postpone getting pregnant in a context such as Colombia
   where more than 50 percent of pregnancies are unplanned and across the
   region where sexual violence is prevalent."

   ''

   Roa said, "In a crisis like the Zika outbreak, the lack of sexual
   education is exposed. Health ministries should inform rather than
   recommend."

   A reproductive rights activist in El Salvador said telling women not to
   become pregnant is not so simple. Sara Garcia said "There are
   pregnancies that aren't planned, are imposed on women and girls and are
   the product of sexual abuse."

   Women's rights activists have also faulted health ministries for
   failing to address the role of men in pregnancies.

   Paula Avila-Guillen, programs specialist at the U.S.-based Center for
   Reproductive Rights said, "Once again, governments put the burden on
   women to protect themselves from any risks.

   CDC guidance

   Earlier this week, U.S. health officials issued new guidance for women
   who might have been exposed to the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne
   infection that can cause brain damage in a developing fetus. The[1]
   Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday warned the virus
   is spread through mosquito bites and there are no vaccines to prevent
   the spread and no drugs to treat those affected.

   The agency issued a warning to pregnant women to avoid travel to 14
   countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin America affected
   by the virus. They are Puerto Rico, Martinique, Haiti, El Salvador,
   Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Brazil, Colombia, French Guyana, Paraguay,
   Suriname, Venezuela and Mexico.

   ''The symptoms for Zika include mild fever and rash. An estimated 80
   percent of people infected with the virus have no symptoms at all,
   making it difficult for pregnant women to know whether they have been
   infected. Bell stressed that there are still many unknowns about the
   Zika virus.

   "This is an emerging situation, it's an emerging virus and things are
   definitely going to change," she said. Scientists first discovered the
   virus in Uganda in 1947 while studying monkeys, and isolated it in the
   1950s in a human in Nigeria. But medical historians say confirmed cases
   were rare until 2007, when an outbreak was identified in the South
   Pacific Federated States of Micronesia.

   Ahead of the current Latin America crisis, cases have been identified
   in Polynesia, Easter Island, the Cook Islands and New Caledonia.
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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/advocates-criticize-advice-to-delay-p
   regnancy-due-to-zika/3159648.html

References

   1. http://www.cdc.gov/zika/index.html
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/advocates-criticize-advice-to-delay-pregnancy-due-to-zika/3159648.html