Some airlines, including those serving the Caribbean, have started offering refunds to passengers who had been booked to fly to some of the countries where cases of the Zika virus have been confirmed.
United Airlines, American Airlines and British Airways are allowing passengers to back out of travel.
So far, the mosquito-borne virus has surfaced in Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Paraguay, Panama, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, Suriname and Venezuela, even though international health authorities have indicated that Zika will likely spread to all countries in the Americas.
The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and Caribbean Hotel and Tourism association have said there are already reports of travel cancellations in the Caribbean due to the Zika virus which has been linked to increased cases of microcephaly – a neurological disorder that causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads.
