TEL AVIV – Women visiting countries afflicted with the Zika virus should refrain from getting pregnant while there and for four weeks after leaving the country, the Israeli Health Ministry advised Tuesday. The recommendation also stated that people visiting Zika areas should refrain from donating blood for 28 days after their return, Haaretz reported. The Health Ministry assesses that a month is long enough for people to be certain that they haven’t contracted the virus, whose incubation period is usually three to 12 days. The virus is suspected of causing microcephaly, a severe condition in which babies are born with underdeveloped brains, though the connection has yet to be clinically proven. Previously it was believed that Zika could only be contracted by a bite from an infected mosquito, though the ministry’s new directives seem to indicate that Zika can be contracted through sexual intercourse. “In a few cases, men who contracted the virus infected their partners through intercourse,” the ministry’s statement said. It therefore advised people who visit a country suffering from Zika “to use a condom while having sexual relations during their stay there, and also for four weeks after leaving the danger zone.” The ministry had previously recommended that