Pregnant women in Brazil urged to think twice before giving a kiss

There's now doubt that the Zika virus is responsible for encephaly, because in Colombia, many women are infected but they are not seeing a spike in the condition.

There's also cases of encephaly in Brasil that happened years before Zika arrived. And the encephaly there seems to ocurr only in the north east, but Zika is throughout the country.

Encephaly has always been around. The question is whether the Zica virus causes more instances of it. there is no clear causative link, and as you say, there are areas where the virus is common but not encephaly.