Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called Wednesday for Latin America to launch a region-wide fight against the Zika virus, blamed for causing a surge in brain-damaged babies.

Rousseff said she had asked a summit of the 33-member Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to launch "cooperative action in the fight against the Zika virus," which originated in Africa and arrived in Latin America last year.

Rousseff vowed to wage a "house-by-house fight" against Zika, echoing an announcement by her health minister Monday that 200,000 soldiers would be deployed to go house to house in a mosquito control campaign to wipe out breeding grounds.

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