Note: My thanks to Ian Mackay who reminded me of two more Zika cases out of Vietnam he wrote about last spring (see Zika virus in travellers from Vietnam but not in Vietnam...?).
#11,730
Like Thailand - which yesterday acknowledged 21 Zika cases in Bangkok - Vietnam is considered a Category 2 country when it comes to Zika.
Category 2: Countries with possible endemic transmission or evidence of local mosquito-borne Zika infections in 2016.
Last April (see WHO DON Zika virus infection – Viet Nam) two Zika cases were identified in Vietnam, while the EID Journal carried a letter this summer (see Zika Virus Disease in Traveler Returning from Vietnam to Israel) describing one imported case from Vietnam.
Low level transmission is assumed to be occurring in a number of South East Asian countries, but given limited surveillance and testing, the extent of local transmission of Zika in these regions is unknown
Today the Japan Times is carrying the following report of an imported case earlier this month from Vietnam.
Woman who contracted Zika in Vietnam diagnosed in Tokyo
by Daisuke Kikuchi
Sept 12th, 2016A Vietnamese woman has been confirmed infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus in the first case in Tokyo since the government recognized the disease as Class-4 in February, the health ministry said Monday.
It is also the 11th case in Japan since the first infection was confirmed here in 2013. None of the people contracted the disease in Japan.
After the woman, who is in her 40s, was stung by a mosquito in Vietnam, she experienced a headache and rashes on her body on Sept. 5 before coming to Japan last Thursday, health ministry official Shoji Miyagawa said.
As she also suffered from other symptoms, including pain in her joints and pink eye, she visited a hospital last Friday, and a public health center in Tokyo confirmed her infection on Saturday.
(Continue . . . )
Meanwhile, Hong Kong's CHP reports the 23rd imported Zika case detected in Mainland China.
The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health was notified today (September 12) of an additional imported case of Zika Virus Infection in Henan by the National Health and Family Planning Commission, and again urged the public to adopt strict anti-mosquito measures and safe sex during travel. Pregnant women and those planning pregnancy should not travel to affected areas.
The male patient aged 28 developed fever and headache in Guatemala on September 4 and returned to Henan on September 8. He was detected as febrile with rash upon arrival and was hospitalised for management in stable condition.
To date, 23 imported cases of Zika Virus Infection have been notified in the Mainland.
(Continue . . . )
And the inexorable spread of Zika goes on . . .
