The Zika outbreak continues to cause concern around the globe, as an expert decried the lack of information on the virus available in Venezuela. Meanwhile, a Danish hospital confirmed that a tourist had been infected with the disease after visiting South and Central America.

Former Venezuelan Health Minister José Félix Oletta told The Associated Press that Zika now constitutes a "public menace." He was concerned that the government of President Nicolás Maduro was not adequately informing citizens about the virus linked to a wave of birth defects.

Félix Oletta urged Maduro to start a national prevention campaign. But the South American country's Ministry of Health this month has even failed to publish the official report on endemic and epidemic diseases, which typically comes out once a week, The AP noted.

Little Risk in Danish Case

In Europe, meanwhile, Danish hospital officials said the case of a patient diagnosed with Zika was not the first time the virus had been detected in the continent, the Danish broadcasting service DR reported. Lars Østergaard, a professor of infectious medicine at Aarhus University Hospital, told the channel that the latest occurrence affected a Danish national who had traveled to the Americas.

The unidentified patient, who was diagnosed with the virus on Jan. 27, was running a fever and had a headache and muscle aches, The Associated Press detailed. The hospital sought to reassure the public by saying that there was little risk of Zika spreading in Denmark because Aedes aegypti, the mosquito carrying the virus, is not found in the northern European country.

South American Countries Take Action, U.S. Discourages Travel

Nations across Central and South America, meanwhile, have taken dramatic steps to rein in the outbreak. The government of El Salvador, for example, this week asked its citizens to avoid pregnancies for the next two years because "these mosquitoes exist (in the country) and transmit this disease."

U.S. health officials, for their part, have issued a wide-ranging travel alert for pregnant women, advising them to avoid trips to almost 30 destinations, including Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela; a number of Caribbean islands; as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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