Demi Lovato issues apology after Zika quip

Demi Lovato has issued an apology after posting a clip of her mother joking about the Zika virus.

The 23-year-old singer upset fans when she took to Snapchat to share a video of her mother Dianna Hart taking about the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and saying: "Everybody down in Rio gonna get the Zika virus."

Demi wrote on Twitter: "In no way did I mean to offend anyone last night. I was laughing at how southern my mom sounded, not the issue at hand. Deepest apologies.

"If you watch everything I do, you’re still a fan.. I ain’t goin nowhere bitches (sic)."

The Zika virus is mainly spread by mosquitoes and is a mild infection which isn’t harmful to most people.

But it can be more serious for pregnant women and is thought to be the cause of birth defects in some cases.

There have been outbreaks of Zika reported in the Pacific region, South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

And a number of athletes and journalists have pulled out of the Olympics due to concerns over the virus.

Demi’s apology came after a furious backlash from fans, who were horrified at the joke.

#DemiLovatoIsOverParty soon started trending worldwide on Twitter.

The hashtag echoed the trend about Taylor Swift after a video was released showing her appearing to give Kanye West permission to mention her in his song ‘Famous’.

Fans were furious after Taylor initially insisted Kanye had not told her the content of his song but his wife Kim Kardashian West’s Snapchat videos suggested otherwise.