AMN /
The World Health Organisation advised countries against accepting blood donations from people who have travelled to regions affected by the Zika virus.
With dozens of cases emerging in Europe and North America from travellers returning from affected areas, WHO stressed the potential link between Zika and microcephaly which causes children to be born with abnormally small heads and urged health authorities to take precautions.
Meanwhile, in the first case of its kind in Europe, Spain’s Health Ministry said a pregnant woman who had returned from Colombia had been diagnosed with the virus.
The mosquito-borne virus has so far spread to 26 countries in South and Central America and the Caribbean and health authorities have warned it could infect up to four million people on the continent and spread worldwide.