World Health Organization Calls Emergency Meeting On Zika Virus

The World Health Organization says it is convening an emergency committee on Monday to decide if the Zika virus outbreak should be declared an international health emergency.

At a special meeting on Thursday, WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said the virus -- which has been linked to birth defects and neurological problems -- was "spreading explosively."

Chan said although there was no definitive proof that Zika was responsible for a spike in the number of babies being born with abnormally small heads in Brazil, "the level of alarm is extremely high."

"This disease needs a vehicle to spread, if we can control the vehicle we can minimize the impact," said the WHO of the mosquito-borne virus. "This is going to go everywhere, we should assume that. We should act on that."

Speaking Thursday on "CBS This Morning," Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called mosquitos "the most murderous animal on Earth."

Fauci said, however, that he did not expect to see a major Zika outbreak in the U.S.

WHO last declared an international emergency over the devastating 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which ended up killing more than 11,000 people.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.