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Ottawa: Three Canadians have been infected with the Zika virus while traveling abroad, Canadian health authorities said Thursday.
"There are three cases in Canada," a spokesman for the health ministry told AFP.
The first case involved an Alberta resident. Officials did not specify where the person had traveled.
The two other patients live in westernmost British Columbia province and were infected in El Salvador and Colombia, respectively.
None of the three was pregnant and all have recovered.
The mosquito-borne virus has been linked to serious birth defects, including microcephaly, a condition in which a newborn's brain and skull are abnormally small. Developmental problems often result.
Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) set an emergency meeting for February 1 on the Zika virus, which is spreading "explosively" in the Americas, with three to four million cases expected this year.
No cases of direct infection have yet been registered inside the United States or Canada.
AFP
