SAO PAULO: Brazil's health ministry on Friday reported 4,314 suspected and confirmed cases of microcephaly, a birth defect causing an abnormally small head in newborns, up from 4,074 cases on February 2.

Of those, 462 were confirmed as microcephaly and 41 were determined to be linked to the Zika virus that has spread rapidly through the Americas but is most common in Brazil.