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The Zika virus: 5 things to know

A once-rare mosquito-borne virus called Zika is spreading rapidly through the Americas since arriving in Brazil last May. Its potential link to birth defects has health officials concerned.

By John Tozzi | Updated on January 25, 2016
A female Aedes aegypti mosquito acquires a blood meal on the arm of a researcher at the Biomedical Sciences Institute in the Sao Paulo's University, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. The Aedes aegypti is a vector for transmitting the Zika virus. The Brazilian government announced it will direct funds to a biomedical research center to help develop a vaccine against the Zika virus linked to brain damage in babies. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

(Bloomberg) — A once-rare mosquito-borne virus called Zika is spreading rapidly through the Americas since arriving in Brazil last May, with a case confirmed in Texas in a traveler returning from Latin America.

Health officials are alarmed because of a possible link between the virus and a birth defect called microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and potential developmental problems.

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