Argentina confirms first Zika virus case - health ministry sources

A slide on the Zika cases distribution in Brazil is pictured during an information session for Members States at the World Health Organization Executive Board meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, January 28, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina has confirmed its first case of the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus after a Colombian woman living in Buenos Aires tested positive, two health ministry sources said on Thursday. "The Zika case is confirmed," said one official, speaking on condition of anonymity, a day after the health ministry reported the suspected case in a statement. The woman had recently visited Colombia. In Buenos Aires and its densely populated outskirts, city workers have been fumigating parks to try to eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits Zika as well as dengue fever and yellow fever. The World Health Organization said on Thursday the Zika virus, linked to severe birth defects in thousands of babies in Brazil, is "spreading explosively" and may infect 3 to 4 million people in the Americas, including 1.5 million in Brazil. (Reporting by Maximilino Rizzi; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Will Dunham)