The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday declared the Zika virus and its suspected link to birth defects an international public health emergency.
This signals the seriousness of the outbreak and gives countries powerful new tools to fight it.
Reported cases of microcephaly are rising sharply in Brazil, ground zero for the disease, though researchers have yet to establish a direct link.
At a news conference in Geneva, Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the W.H.O, said clusters of microcephaly in regions with Zika cases constitute an extraordinary event and a public health threat to other parts of the world.
Meanwhile an announcement by Jamaica's Ministry of Health which suggested that the country's first case of the Zika virus involved a child who recently visited Texas has created a stir in the US State.
However, State health authorities say it's unlikely the boy was infected in Texas.
The Health Ministry on Saturday issued a statement that a 4-year old boy from Portmore, St. Catherine began showing symptoms on January 17 after returning from Texas.
Texas Department of State Health Services officials contacted the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when it learned of the Jamaican announcement, to evaluate the case.
Department of State Health Services spokeswoman, Carrie Williams, says the evidence supported the fact that infection likely occurred in Jamaica and did not raise a concern for local transmission in Texas.
The Houston Chronicle newspaper reported that Jamaican officials said they had no evidence the boy was infected while in Texas.
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