The Department of Foreign Affairs has released an updated list of 22 countries where the mosquito-borne Zika virus is transmitted.
It includes nations in the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Africa and the Pacific Islands.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is warning the Zika virus is likely to spread to all countries in the Americas except Canada and Chile.
Zika virus is suspected of being behind an unusually high number of brain-damaged newborns in Brazil.
The disease has rapidly spread to 21 countries and territories in that region since May 2015, due to a lack of immunity among the population and the prevalence of the mosquito which causes the Zika virus.
The United Nations health agency, the World Health Organisation, is warning the virus is expected to spread to all countries in the Americas, apart from Canada and Chile.
WHO head Margaret Chan says the situation is extremely worrying.
"The explosive threat of Zika virus, to new geographical areas, with little population immunity is another cause for concern, especially given the possible link between infection during pregnancy and babies born with small heads."
WHO says women planning to travel to areas where the virus is active should consult a healthcare provider before travelling and on return.
Brazil's Health Ministry in November confirmed the Zika virus is linked to a foetal deformation known as microcephaly, in which infants are born with smaller-than-usual brains.
Brazil has reported 3,893 suspected cases of microcephaly, over 30 times more than has been reported in any year since 2010.
Evidence about other transmission routes is limited and the WHO says there is currently no evidence of Zika being transmitted to babies through breast milk.
Margaret Chan explains.
"Although a causal link between Zika infection in pregnancy and microcephaly has not, and I must emphasise, has not been established, the circumstantial evidence is suggestive and extremely worrisome. An increased occurrence of neurological symptoms, noted in some countries coincident with arrival of the virus, adds to the concern."
Zika has historically occurred in parts of Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands and there is no vaccine or treatment available
It is normally a mild disease and there is little scientific data on it, so it is unclear why the virus might now be causing microcephaly.
Experts say an outbreak could happen in Australia but would most likely be limited to north Queensland.
Peter Horby is Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Global Health at Oxford University in the UK.
He told the ABC the potential for the virus to spread is worrying.
"The mosquitoes that transmit this virus are very widely distributed. The same mosquito that carries dengue and that's spread across the whole of Asia, parts of Africa and Central America and even in Northern Australia. So the potential for this virus to spread over very large areas of the globe is huge."
Meanwhile the eradication of another mosquito-borne infection, malaria, has received a massive boost.
Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates and the British government are pledging more than AUD$6 billion to help end deaths from malaria in the next 15 years.
Between 2000 and 2015, malaria deaths fell by 60 per cent globally but 438,000 people still died from malaria in 2015.
