San Salvador: Don't get pregnant for the next two years.
That is the warning El Salvador's government has issued women as Zika, a tropical virus blamed for causing severe birth defects, sweeps Latin America and the Caribbean.
But a spate of such recommendations from health officials in several countries has drawn derision in a region where activists say women have little control over their bodies in the first place.
Since Zika, a mosquito-borne, flu-like disease that originated in Africa, arrived in Latin America last year, there has been a rampant increase in babies born with microcephaly, or abnormally small heads, a birth defect that can cause brain damage and death.
Brazil has been hit hardest: microcephaly cases in the country surged from 163 per year on average to 3,893 after the Zika outbreak began.
Forty-nine of those babies have died.
"If I hadn't already been pregnant when the information spread, I would have definitely postponed it so I wouldn't have to go through all this stress," said Manuela Mehl, who is 16 weeks' pregnant, in Rio de Janeiro.
"Obviously, you'll take care of your baby as best you can, but raising a child with neurological problems requires a lot of attention and dedication on the parents' part... It's a very difficult situation. It's difficult to even think about."
AFP
