First Zika-linked deaths reported as U.N. urges abortion rights upheld

Colombia said Friday three people had died of complications of the Zika virus sweeping Latin America, as the United Nations urged increased access to abortion because of fears of severe birth defects. In the first direct statements from government health officials blaming Zika for causing deaths, Colombia said the patients died after contracting the virus and developing a rare neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome. Cases of the syndrome have increased in tandem with the Zika outbreak, fueling suspicions that it is a complication of the otherwise mild tropical fever, which is also blamed for causing brain damage in babies born to infected mothers.

Other cases (of deaths linked to Zika) are going to emerge. The world is realizing that Zika can be deadly. The mortality rate is not very high, but it can be deadly.

Epidemiologist Martha Lucia Ospina, director of Colombia’s National Health Institute

Citing the rise in babies born with microcephaly, or abnormally small heads and brains, the U.N. human rights office urged countries hit by Zika to give women access to contraception and abortion. Women’s reproductive rights are a touchy subject in largely Catholic Latin America, but the U.N. human rights office said countries urging women to avoid pregnancy had to give them ways to control their fertility. Health officials in Brazil and the United States meanwhile warned, as a precaution, that sex or even kissing could potentially spread the typically mosquito-borne disease.

We’re always going to err on the side of safety.

Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Tom Frieden

Zika