A woman covers her mouth outside her home while city workers fumigate to combat the Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus in El Salvador, Jan. 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)
In response to the recent outbreak of the Zika virus throughout Latin America, health officials in El Salvador have urged women not to get pregnant until 2018 in an effort to combat an increase in a birth defect known as microcephaly, which is suspected to be caused by the mosquito-borne illness.
“We’d like to suggest to all the women of fertile age that they take steps to plan their pregnancies, and avoid getting pregnant between this year and next,” said El Salvador’s Deputy Health Minister Eduardo Espinoza.