“These endemic cases, combined with previous reports in travellers, provide evidence that Zika is widespread throughout Thailand”, the journal said.
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A statement provided to The Associated Press late Monday says concrete steps will be taken beginning next week.
Castro also informed the outlet the country will demand mandatory reporting of the virus. Currently, there is no vaccine or cure to this condition. “Mostly if patients get this disease they recover”, the ministry said. The virus is thought to have been introduced into Brazil during the 2014 World Cup.
Although no direct connection has been determined, the mosquito-borne virus is thought to be linked to microcephaly, a birth defect in which babies are born with underdeveloped brains.
To note, symptoms of Zika virus, which usually begin three to seven days after being bitten by an infected mosquito, include fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis as well as muscle pain, headache, and vomiting. According to The Guardian, he also added that Brazilian researchers are working in collaboration with researchers in the United States in their race to find a vaccine. The WHO declared that the surge in South America was “strongly suspected” of being caused by the Zika virus.
The Pan-American health Organization said the virus has since spread to 24 countries and territories in the hemisphere.
An outbreak of the Zika virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, was detected in Brazil last May and has since moved into more than 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including two new ones announced Monday: Costa Rica and Jamaica.
The threat is not global; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that for most Americans, Zika is “not something they need to worry about”. Outbreaks have also been reported in the Pacific islands. Some Zika infections resulted in miscarriages, and the virus was discovered in the dead newborns’ brain tissue. The virus has been linked to birth defects.
The Zika emergency comes at a particularly bad time for President Dilma Rousseff’s unpopular government, adding a new burden to a public health system hit by budget cuts in the midst of a severe recession. The tiger mosquito, one of the Zika virus carriers, can be found in the country, but it is dormant during winter.
Colombia is forecasting it will see more than 650,000 infections.
Microcephaly causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads.
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In a bid to clarify what the response to the outbreak should be, WHO chief Margaret Chan called for Monday’s closed-door meeting of the organisation’s emergency committee to determine if Zika should be considered a “public health emergency of worldwide concern”.
