Health officials in Florida say a Haitian woman in Florida has delivered the first baby in the state born with the birth defect microcephaly caused by the Zika virus.  If this is confirmed by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the child will be the fifth in the United States to be born with a birth defect.

The woman became infected in her home country, and traveled to Florida where she gave birth to the child with an abnormally small skull and brain.  Microcephaly almost always results in profound developmental disabilities.  Thousands of babies were born with the defect in Brazil, where the Zika outbreak has caused a public health crisis.  Many of the families impacted by microcephaly caused by Zika come from the impoverished favelas, and will require state assistance for the duration.  Brazil is believed to have had more than 1.5 million ZIka infections since the onset of the outbreak in April 2015, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

Health officials around the world have warned pregnant woman not to travel to countries affected by the Zika outbreak.  But it's not just pregnant women wary of the mosquito-borne virus: Many athletes are skipping out on the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro just to avoid Zika.  The number one golfer in the world, Australia's Jason Day, says he will not compete in the Olympics. 

"I just can't put my family through that, especially with the future children we're looking at having," Mr. Day said at Firestone Country Club in Ohio, in advance of Thursday's World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.  "My wife wants four kids, and obviously if we're having four kids I need to make sure that the priority is family first," he added.  Day joins four-time major winner Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, and Ireland's Shane Lowrey as the biggest names to drop out of the Olympics.

When Zika isn't causing birth defects, people bitten by infected mosquitoes might have symptoms such as fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise, or headache.

The good news is that scientists are reporting two potential vaccine candidates that may help combat the Zika virus.  Studies published in the journal Nature indicate that a single shot of each were shown to completely protect mice against two strains of the mosquito-borne disease.  They're hoping to start human trials ASAP.