DURHAM, N.C.--The World Health Organization decided Monday to declare an international health emergency, due to the Zika Virus, so healthcare professionals across the state are urging North Carolinians to learn more about the disease.

Dr. Cameron Wolfe is an infectious diseases expert at Duke. He says the primary focus of the warnings from the C.D.C. and W.H.O. involve a link between Zika and a birth defect in infants’ heads, and pregnant women should consider not traveling to areas where the virus has been spreading, notably Brazil, the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean.

”The illness itself is actually pretty mild; in fact 80 percent, four out of five people don’t have any symptoms,” said Dr. Wolfe.

So far there have been no cases of the Zika Virus confirmed in North Carolina.

Wolfe says the medical community has known about the Zika virus for decades, but many people in the U.S. are  hearing about it for the first time.