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Countries Hit With Zika Virus Are Telling Women Not to Get Pregnant

Now the question is how long women will have to delay their pregnancies
A Health Ministry employee fumigates a home against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of the Zika virus in Soyapango, 6 kilometers east of San Salvador, on Jan. 21.

A Health Ministry employee fumigates a home against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of the Zika virus in Soyapango, 6 kilometers east of San Salvador, on Jan. 21.

Photographer: Marvin Recinos/AFP via Getty Images
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The risks from Zika virus sweeping through the Americas are serious enough that some countries are telling their citizens to put off getting pregnant for months or even years.

It’s an extraordinary response to the mosquito-borne virus suspected of causing babies to be born with abnormally small heads, a birth defect known as microcephaly. “When you have no other tools to use right now, that’s about the best advice you can give,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.