Last week, we gave you a little rundown on all you need to know about the Zika virus, but one question was left unanswered: Will we, living in South Africa, be in danger of contracting the disease? The answer is quite great as we probably won’t be likely to contract the disease and the reason is pretty sweet.

In Latin and South America, the disease is spread by the Aedesaegypti mosquito. Although a similar mosquito is present in South Africa, the difference is that our one doesn’t bite. This is according to Professor Lucille Blumberg, deputy director of National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

For the disease to spread to South Africa, someone would have to contract it, bring it over and get bitten – which is unlikely – and infections don’t last that long:

A person is infectious for only a few days and would have to be bitten during a short period of time, making it even more unlikely. The disease would require multiple mosquitoes to be infected before it could spread. Zika was first identified in 1947 in Uganda, but has never been recorded further south.

However, pregnant women should refrain from visiting countries where the infection is present as health officials have reported between 500 000 and 1.5 million people infected in Brazil. The virus has since spread to more than 20 countries in the region.