WHO says delaying pregnancy option for women in Zika areas

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2016, file photo, an Aedes aegypti mosquito is photographed through a microscope at the Fiocruz institute in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. The World Health Organization says women who live in areas where Zika is spreading should consider delaying pregnancy, since there's no other sure way to avoid the virus' devastating birth defects. The WHO stops short of advising couples to put pregnancy on hold, as some countries battling the outbreak have. Instead, WHO spokeswoman Nyka Alexander says on June 9, that men and women who live in outbreak areas should be given information about the risks of Zika and told that delaying pregnancy is an option. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File) FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2016, file photo, an Aedes aegypti mosquito is photographed through a microscope at the Fiocruz institute in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. The World Health Organization says women who live in areas where Zika is spreading should consider delaying pregnancy, since there's no other sure way to avoid the virus' devastating birth defects. The WHO stops short of advising couples to put pregnancy on hold, as some countries battling the outbreak have. Instead, WHO spokeswoman Nyka Alexander says on June 9, that men and women who live in outbreak areas should be given information about the risks of Zika and told that delaying pregnancy is an option. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

By Associated Press June 10, 2016 4 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – The World Health Organization says women who live in areas where Zika is spreading should consider delaying pregnancy, since there’s no other sure way to avoid the virus’ devastating birth defects.

The WHO stopped short of recommending that couples put pregnancy on hold.

“It’s not saying they should delay. They should be given the information about it and offered that as an option,” WHO spokeswoman Nyka Alexander said Thursday.

Zika is rapidly spreading through Latin America and the Caribbean, and health officials in several affected countries have made similar recommendations. But the WHO’s guidelines, updated last week, could affect millions of couples who live in outbreak areas.

Zika causes only a mild and brief illness, at worst, in most people. But it can cause fetal death and severe brain defects in the children of women infected during pregnancy.