South African Airways (SAA) says it will continue to offer a daily service between Johannesburg and Sao Paolo in Brazil after the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded there was no justification to impose a travel ban to Latin America and the Caribbean due to the outbreak of the Zika virus.

At its meeting held this week the WHO’s International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee on the Zika Virus concluded that the outbreak of the Zika virus was a Public Health Emergency of International Concern but saw no health justification to restrict travel and trade in areas affected by the virus.

 “It is strongly recommended that travellers take the necessary precaution and consult with their medical or healthcare practitioners for advice‚” SAA said on Sunday.

“Furthermore‚ the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) agrees with the South African National Department of Health that pregnant women should delay their travel to areas with current outbreaks of the Zika virus.”

“We don’t have Zika in this country. It’s never been shown to be present in Africa below Uganda. We may see some return travellers who have been to Brazil having mild illness – but they do not pose a risk to others here‚” the NICD said.

 SAA said it already had communicable disease management procedures in place to protect its passengers‚ crew and ground staff. The staff was adequately trained to manage incidents of this nature‚ should a need arise.

“SAA would like to further reassure customers that the airline has regulated disinfection procedures in place for all flights departing or arriving from South America. Extra disinfectant spray has been loaded to reinforce measures already in place‚” the airline said.

 It added that the risk of mosquito-borne transmission on aircraft was extremely low.