HONOLULU: A baby born with brain damage at a hospital in Oahu, Hawaii, was infected by the Zika virus, US health officials confirmed on Saturday, apparently the first case of the mosquito-borne virus in a birth on US soil.

The mother became ill with the Zika virus while living in Brazil in May 2015 and the baby was likely infected in the womb, Hawaiian state health officials and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

“There’s no indication at this point that there’s any Zika virus circulating in Hawaii,” CDC spokesman Tom Skinner told Reuters.

“But I think its important for us to understand that there are going to be imported cases of Zika to the United States and we won’t be surprised if we start to see some local transmission of the virus,” Skinner said

Zika can be transmitted by a mosquito that has bitten an infected person.

On Friday US health officials issued a travel warning for 14 countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin America where infection with Zika is a risk. The CDC in particular cautioned pregnant women not to travel to those areas as Zika has been linked to serious birth defects.

The travel alert applies to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.