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(CNN)The Zika virus "is now spreading explosively" around the Americas, the head of the World Health Organization said Thursday, calling the level of alarm over the disease "extremely high."

"The level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty," WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan told her organization's executive board members. "We need to get some answers, quickly."

The mosquito-borne disease is now in "23 countries and territories in the region," according to Chan. While it's been around in some form for decades, alarms have been raised only recently about Zika's suspected connection with "birth malformations and neurological symptoms."

"Arrival of the virus in some places has been associated with a steep increase in the birth of babies with abnormally small heads and in cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome," Chan explained.

After being first detected in 1947 in a monkey in Uganda, Zika was most often found along the equator from Africa into Asia. Nine years ago, new cases popped up in islands in the Pacific Ocean.

14 photos: Zika virus outbreak

A researcher at the University of Sao Paulo holds a container with female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes on Monday, January 18.

A graveyard in Lima, Peru, is fumigated on Friday, January 15.

At her home in Recife, Nadja Bezerra shows the medicine she needs to give her 2-month old baby who was born with suspected Zika-related microcephaly. She discovered her baby had microcephaly from an ultrasound when she was seven months pregnant. &quot;It was the worst day of my life,&quot; she said.

Brazilian health workers investigate a water line under a sidewalk in Recife on Saturday, January 9. Workers go door-to-door educating residents and encouraging them to clean up standing water, which provides perfect breeding ground for the Zika-carrying mosquitoes.

A Brazilian soldier adds a natural substance that eats mosquito eggs and larvae to a bucket of water outside a home in Recife on January 9.

Cleane Serpa holds her 1-month-old cousin at a hospital in Recife on Friday, January 8. The child was born with microcephaly.

Aedes aegypti mosquitos are seen at the University of Sao Paulo on January 8. Researchers from the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal, came to Brazil to train local researchers to combat the Zika virus epidemic.

A health worker sprays insecticide under the bleachers of Rio de Janeiro&#39;s Sambadrome on Tuesday, January 26, to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that transmit the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cnn.com/specials/health/zika&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Zika virus.&lt;/a&gt; The World Health Organization expects the virus, which is linked to a neurological birth disorder, to spread to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/25/health/who-zika-virus-americas/index.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;almost every country in the Americas.&lt;/a&gt;

David Henrique Ferreira, a 5-month-old who has microcephaly, is watched by his brother in Recife, Brazil, on Monday, January 25. Since November, Brazil has seen nearly 4,000 cases of microcephaly in babies born to women who were infected with Zika. The disorder results in newborns with abnormally small heads and abnormal brain development.

A Brazilian soldier inspects a home in Recife on January 25 while canvassing the neighborhood and attempting to eradicate the larvae of mosquitoes linked to the virus.

The larvae of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are photographed in a lab in Cali, Colombia, on January 25. Scientists are studying the mosquitoes to control their reproduction and resistance to insecticides.

Angelica Prato, a pregnant woman infected by the Zika virus, receives medical attention at a hospital in Cucuta, Colombia, on January 25.

A woman walks through fumes as Health Ministry employees fumigate an area in Soyapango, El Salvador, on Thursday, January 21.

Brazilian soldiers apply insect repellent as they prepare for a cleanup operation in Sao Paulo on Wednesday, January 20.

<img class="media__image media__image--responsive media__image--cut-format owl-lazy" alt="A graveyard in Lima, Peru, is fumigated on Friday, January 15." data-src-mini="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160126123504-14-zika-virus-small-169.jpg" data-src-xsmall="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160126123504-14-zika-virus-medium-plus-169.jpg" data-src-small="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160126123504-14-zika-virus-large-169.jpg" data-src-medium="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160126123504-14-

Topic: World News

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