Zika: Which European Countries Are At Risk?

The two most popular foreign countries for UK travellers have been identified as having a "moderate" risk for transmission of the Zika virus.

France and Spain host 12 million and eight million annual overnight visits from the UK respectively, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

Its list of the 10 most visited overseas countries by Britons includes two more - Italy and Greece - that have been put in the "moderate" risk category by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

A total of 18 countries where the Aedes albopictus mosquito is endemic are at "moderate" risk, according to the WHO.

These are: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Italy, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Romania, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and Vatican City.

The WHO says there is a "high" chance the virus will appear in areas where a type of mosquito called the Aedes aegypti lives.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says the mosquito type has been recently reported in Madeira, the Netherlands and the north-eastern Black Sea coast (southern Russia and Georgia).

WHO says there is a "low, very low or no" likelihood that Zika will occur in 36 other European countries, including the UK.

When combined with the abilities of those countries' health services to cope with an outbreak, WHO says the risk to their populations is "low to moderate during late spring and summer".

It says that 41 out of 53 European countries have "good or very good" capacity for coping with an outbreak.

Experts say Zika, which has spread widely throughout South and Central America, is responsible for a type of birth defect called microcephaly, which results in newborns having small heads.

It has also been strongly linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome , which attacks the nervous system and can lead to paralysis.

Women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant have been advised to avoid parts of South and Central America because of the virus.

People travelling to all areas at risk of infection are being told to pay attention to health advice.

There have already been cases of Zika reported in Europe in people who have returned from travelling in the Americas, including people whose babies have suffered birth defects.

Experts have previously warned that Zika infected mosquitos could travel to Europe on planes.

WHO has called on European countries which could suffer outbreaks to follow a series of recommendations to reduce the likelihood.