Zika Virus Outbreak IS A 'Global Public Health Emergency', Says World Health Organisation, As Graveyards And Schools Are Desperately Disinfected

The UN health agency warned the mosquito-borne disease was 'spreading explosively'. 

Today, a committee declared it is a global emergency which should help fast-track international action. 

Experts also fear the warm weather system El Nino will fuel the outbreak by increasing the mosquito population. 

Brazil sounded the alarm in October, when a rash of microcephaly cases, a devastating condition in which a baby is born with an abnormally small head and brain, emerged in the northeast.

Since then, there have been 270 confirmed cases (including three-month-old Alice Vitoria Gomes Bezerra, left) and 3,448 suspected cases, up from 147 in 2014. 

There are also growing fears for the Rio Olympics in August, with female athletes saying they may not compete over concerns of contracting the illness.