U.S. health authorities on Friday urged people to use condoms or refrain from sex if they live in or have traveled to areas where the Zika virus is circulating.

The new interim guidelines from the U.S. Centers from Disease Control are aimed at pregnant women and their partners, and those of childbearing age who are concerned about Zika, a primarily mosquito-borne virus which has been linked to birth defects.

Nearly 500,000 condoms will be distributed in the Angolan capital Luanda during the four-day annual carnival that starts Saturday, in a campaign to help prevent the spread of AIDS, organizers said.

ANASO, an umbrella organization of groups fighting HIV and AIDS, will send 10 teams of volunteers across the city to hand out condoms and leaflets about combating the disease.

The United Nations on Friday urged countries hit by the dangerous Zika virus to let women have access to contraception and abortion.

The U.N. human rights office said the South American countries now urging women to hold off getting pregnant over Zika fears had to offer them the possibility of controlling their fertility.

An inquiry into the death of a man during a drug trial has found "three major shortcomings" at the French laboratory where he was being tested, the minister of health said Thursday.

Five other people were also hospitalized after taking part in a Phase I trial for a new pain and mood disorder medication at Biotrial, in western France, on behalf of Portuguese pharmaceutical company Bial.

South American health ministers launched emergency talks Wednesday on the fast-spreading Zika outbreak after a U.S. case of sexual transmission of the virus, blamed for brain damage in babies.

Ministers from 13 countries including the two reportedly worst affected, Brazil and Colombia, gathered in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo to coordinate their fight against the mosquito-borne illness.

Densely packed slums, rampant mosquitoes and a history of rapidly spreading infections make Asia particularly vulnerable to the devastating Zika virus, posing a massive challenge for the region, health experts warn.

Thailand confirmed Tuesday that a man contracted the mosquito-borne infection, blamed for a surge in the number of brain-damaged babies in South America, while Indonesia has also reported a domestic case.

The World Health Organization said Tuesday it had created a global unit to respond to the Zika virus, voicing fears the disease blamed for a surge in birth defects in South America could spread across Africa and Asia. 

"We have now set up a global response unit, which brings together all people across WHO in headquarters, in the regions, to deal with the formal response" to Zika, said WHO expert Anthony Costello.

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi announced Tuesday that it had begun research and development into a vaccine against the mosquito-borne Zika virus, blamed for causing a surge in brain-damaged babies.

The company said the success of its Sanofi Pasteur vaccines division in developing a vaccine against dengue fever could be "rapidly leveraged" in the fight against Zika.

A major MERS outbreak in South Korea that scared off tourists dealt a blow to flag carrier Korean Air, whose net loss widened by 54 percent last year according to figures Tuesday. 

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome infected 186 people and killed 36 of them in the South -- the largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia where the virus originated.

The White House said Monday it wants $1 billion to "jump-start" a new task force to end cancer, known as the Moonshot initiative headed by Vice President Joe Biden.

Already $195 million has been allocated to the National Institutes of Health so that work on new cancer research can begin immediately, a senior administration official told reporters.