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 Zika, which has spread across the Americas, has been linked to brain
damage in thousands of babies in Brazil, leading health authorities
in Colombia and El Salvador to advise women against getting pregnant
for anywhere up to two years.
There are 18 cases of Zika in Mexico, with 13 in the southern state
of Chiapas, four in the northern state of Nuevo Leon and one in the
western state of Jalisco, said Pablo Kuri, deputy minister for
prevention and health promotion.
"In Mexico, right now, there is no justification to tell a woman not
to get pregnant when we only have cases in three places," Kuri said
in an interview.
"We'll have to see in the future, given the experiences in Central
and South America, if these types of recommendations really have any
effect. You can tell people not to get pregnant, but that doesn't
mean they won't."
Kuri said all 18 people contracted the virus in Mexico, rather than
catching it abroad and traveling to Mexico.
But he said the many migrants traveling north to the United States
from Central America, and particularly El Salvador, which has been
badly hit by the outbreak, could add to the Zika tally in Mexico.
Given the paucity of cases, he said that "the risk of coming to
Mexico is extremely low," as many parts of the country, including
Mexico City, had such high elevations that the low-lying Zika
mosquito could not strike there.
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On Monday, the World Health Organization predicted the virus would
spread to all countries across the Americas except for Canada and
Chile.
There is currently no vaccine for Zika. The Sao Paulo-based Butantan
Institute is leading research on Zika and says it plans to develop a
vaccine "in record time," although its director warned that was
still likely to take three to five years.
Kuri was skeptical about those claims.
"The development of the dengue vaccine took various decades," he
said. "A vaccine is no trivial thing. You can't just make it in
someone's garden."
(Writing by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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