There will not be a widely available vaccine for several years, United States officials said on Thursday.

"We are closely monitoring the situation and all necessary steps have been initiated to ensure that India is well prepared in case of any eventuality", Nadda said.

"There is ongoing transmission in Central and South America, and some of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands", Dr. Philip Huang, M.D., said. It affects brain development in unborn babies resulting in microcephaly or small heads and brain damage. For that reason, the CDC is recommending that women who are pregnant or may become pregnant not to travel to the 24 countries where the disease is widespread.

"Discussions are on on the issue".

A pregnant woman in New York City has been diagnosed with the Zika virus. She says the Zika virus has been around since the late 1940s, but up until now it was considered just a nuisance virus.

Federal bureaucrats told reporters at a technical briefing Friday that four Canadians have contracted the Zika virus from traveling overseas - two in British Columbia, one in Alberta and another in Quebec - but said the risk of contracting the Zika remains very low in Canada.

Colombia and Venezuela are both reporting a jump in cases of a rare, sometimes paralyzing syndrome that may be linked to the Zika virus.

The World Health Organization said Monday that the whole continent is susceptible to virus, except for Canada and Chile.

"The Zika fever is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by the Zika virus (ZIKV), which manifests itself with moderate fever, skin rash, headaches, joints and muscle pain or soreness, fatigue, red eyes". It is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is also known to carry the dengue, yellow fever and Chikungunya viruses. An increase in microcephaly was noted during an outbreak of Zika virus in Brazil in 2015.

Now there is no vaccine or treatment for the virus, but research to create one is being conducted by consortium of Canadian and American doctors. "It is likely that there are other cases that were not reported".