The Zika virus, suspected of causing brain damage in babies and a neurological disorder in adults, has also been linked to the paralysing myelitis disorder, French researchers said on Tuesday.

A 15-year-old girl diagnosed with acute myelitis in Guadeloupe in January, had high levels of Zika in her cerebrospinal fluid, said Annie Lannuzel of the University Hospital Center Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe -- the first-ever published "proof of a link" between the virus and the disease.