Zika Outbreak Declared International Emergency
The World Health Organisation has declared the Zika virus outbreak an international emergency.
There are growing fears that the mosquito-borne disease is linked to birth defects and spreading rapidly.
The WHO said the spread of the Zika virus in South America was an "extraordinary event" and there could be up to four million cases in the region this year.
The organisation's chief, Dr Margaret Chan, said an international co-ordinated response was needed to improve detection and control mosquito populations, although restrictions on travel or trade were not necessary.
At the moment, there is no vaccine for the disease and no known cure.
The WHO said it was "strongly suspected" that a surge in cases of microcephaly - where a baby is born with an abnormally small head and brain - was caused by the virus.
But Brazilian researchers are convinced Zika is behind more than 4,000 confirmed and suspected cases in South America's largest country. The disease is also in 23 other nations and territories in the region.
Brazil is due to host the Olympics this summer and pregnant women have been urged not to attend due to the risk of foetal brain damage.
Health minister Marcel Castro said the virus cannot be transmitted from person to person, only by mosquito, but claimed the epidemic is worse than believed because in 80% of the cases the infected people have no symptoms.
The Brazilian doctor who first spotted the possible link has warned of a second wave of malformed babies in her country by the end of 2016, if the infection is not contained.
Dr Vanessa van der Linden, a paediatric neurologist in Recife in northeast Brazil, said she noticed a dramatic increase in the number of babies suffering from microcephaly last August.
Many of the mothers had also contracted the Zika virus in the first few months of pregnancy.
She said: "In the same day in August, I saw three patients with microcephaly…that is with 27cm or 28cm head circumference", she told Sky News (the normal circumference for a newborn is 34-37cm).
"And I thought, this is something strange because it's not normal."
The infection is usually mild, causing flu-like symptoms and sometimes a rash. Brazil first suffered from an outbreak around this time last year.
"We then noticed about six months later, after the Zika epidemic, there was a big rise in the number of babies being born with these brain abnormalities," Dr van der Linden said.
Many mothers complained of having Zika-symptoms in the first few months of pregnancy.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has declared 'war' on the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
She has signed a new measure allowing health officials to have access - by force is necessary - to any building to eradicate mosquito breeding grounds - even if the property's owner cannot be located.
But despite sending troops out onto the streets to try to combat the virus spreading by killing its host, she has been heavily criticised for not doing enough.
"We're afraid," one woman said. "No-one who is pregnant is safe."
Fear and ignorance are a potent combination and young mother Girlania Maria da Silva said she no longer goes outside with her four-month-old baby daughter Emily because of all the whispering and pointing at her little girl.
She said: "I think people look at her think 'my God, look at that girl with the small head. What a horrible thing. She looks more like a doll'."
"I have even heard them say doll. But I control myself and I know that this is just a test that we're going to get through."
However, Brazilian scientists believe the virus may have crossed over to the much more common Culex mosquito which will have huge implications in how the virus spreads and the levels of people it affects.
Zika was first identified in 1947 in a Ugandan forest.
But until last year it was not believed to cause any serious effects as about 80% of infected people never experience symptoms.
The WHO last declared a global health emergency over the ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014.
