Jamaica's health minister is advising women to delay plans to become pregnant for the next six to 12 months due to the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

In Hawaii this week, the first known case in the USA of a newborn found with traces of the Zika virus, born with microcephaly, has been reported.

Most of the 3,530 babies the Health Ministry said had been born with microcephaly in the country since October 2015 had been concentrated in the country's poorest regions, such as the north-east.

The infant's mother had lived in Brazil last May and probably was bitten by a mosquito then, when she was early in her pregnancy, the health department said. Dr. Sarah Park, the Hawaii state epidemiologist, said Tuesday the mother no longer had the virus when she arrived in Hawaii and the baby no longer had it at the time of birth. Brazilian health officials think the greatest risk of microcephaly and malformations happens during the first trimester of pregnancy. The new guidelines released Tuesday by the CDC recommend pregnant women postpone travel to any of the 14 countries and territories in Central and South America and the Caribbean where transmission of the vector-borne disease is now active. The kind of mosquitoes that can carry the virus are found in the southwestern United States. The virus is spread through mosquito bites.

"There's a lot we don't know", including how much Zika is in the different areas, or how likely it is that Zika infection in a pregnant woman will lead to the birth defect, he added.

Zika (ZEE'-ka) is the name of a virus discovered in a monkey in the Zika forest of Uganda in 1947. The CDC confirmed the presence of the virus.

Researchers are testing people now to see how common Zika infection is, how numerous new cases of microcephaly in Brazil also have evidence of Zika infection and just how many new cases there really are. The symptoms are similar to dengue - like high fever, muscle ache, joint pains, headaches, pain in the rear of the eye, conjuctivitis and rashes.

Pregnant women should avoid traveling to Latin America and Caribbean countries that have outbreaks of a tropical illness linked to birth defects, health officials said last week.

Other confirmed cases of Zika have been reported in Africa's Cabo Verde and the aforementioned "watch" places.

"There is virtually no risk to IL residents since you can not contract Zika virus from another person, but only through the bite of an infected mosquito", IDPH Director Nirav D. Shah said in a statement.