First European Case Of Zika In Pregnant Woman

The woman, from Catalonia, was reported to be having clinical tests and was under medical supervision but was described as being in good health.

She is in her second trimester of pregnancy and is presumed to have been infected during the trip to Colombia.

No details have been released about the condition of her unborn child.

The woman is among seven cases of Zika in Spain, said health officials, who said all of them were in a good condition.

The mosquito-borne virus is being blamed for causing brain defects in thousands of newborn babies.

Health authorities have warned the disease could infect up to four million people in the Americas and spread worldwide.

Colombia is one of around 30 countries and territories, mainly in South America as well as the Caribbean, which have been affected so far.

Brazil, where the first case appeared last year, has been the worst-hit nation.

Since October, there have been 404 confirmed cases and 3,670 suspected cases of microcephaly, where a baby's head is abnormally small and their brain is often underdeveloped.

The disease was previously thought to have been passed only by the Aedes mosquito, and not from human-to-human.

But this week came the news in Dallas that a patient had caught the virus after having sexual contact with someone who had returned from Venezuela, where Zika is circulating.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, a person has caught the virus after having a blood transfusion from a donor who had been infected with Zika.

On Tuesday, two cases of the virus were confirmed in Ireland, according to the country's Health Services Executive.

The people involved were a man and an older woman.

Both had travelled to a country affected by the virus and both have now fully recovered.

The Zika virus could spread in every European country if the Aedes mosquito gets a foothold on the continent, the World Health Organisation has warned.

The WHO's Europe chief Zsuzsanna Jakab said the risk of the virus spreading around Europe would increase in spring and summer as temperatures warm up.

It is most likely to spread beyond Latin America through mosquitoes stowing away in baggage, or else in the blood of travellers.