An estimated 1.5 million Brazilians have caught Zika, a virus first detected in Africa in the 1940s and unknown in the Americas until it appeared in May in the poverty-stricken northeastern region of Brazil.
It has since spread to 24 countries.
And officials warned that the virus could pose a greater risk to humanity than ebola, which is believed to have killed 11,000.
The World Health Organisation has estimated that 4 million could be infected by the virus this year.
The mosquito-borne virus that has been linked to thousands of cases babies with shrunken heads in Brazil and is rapidly spreading across the globe.
Five British tourists have caught the virus, which experts believe causes microcephaly – a deadly birth defect in which tots’ heads fail to grow.
In some cases, the virus has caused a neurological disorder leaving victims paralysed.
The first European outbreak was reported last week in Denmark after a man tested positive for the virus.
And terrifyingly, the Aedes aegypti mosquito — which carries the virus — was spotted in Kent and West Sussex sparking fears that Britain is sitting on a ticking zika time bomb.
The rapid arrival of Zika to Brazil has sparked fear especially among pregnant women after local experts linked the virus to thousands of cases of microcephaly, or abnormally small brains, in newborns.
Health Minister Marcelo Castro told Reuters: “Eighty percent of the people infected by Zika do not develop significant symptoms. A large number of people have the virus with no symptoms, so the situation is more serious that we can imagine.
Emergency talks were held by the UN Monday (February 1) in Geneva to assess the outbreak after noting the link between Zika’s arrival in Brazil last year and the surge of babies born with abnormally small heads.
“After a review of the evidence, the committee advised that the clusters of microcephaly and other neurological complications constitute an extraordinary event and public health threat to other parts of the world,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said.
