A Vietnamese woman, 40, was diagnosed with Zika virus while travelling in Japan, according to the General Department of Preventive Medicine under the Vietnamese Ministry of Health.
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It is understood one person was treated for the disease last week and up to five people have been treated for the disease in the past year.
A spokesperson for the Public Health Agency (PHA) told The Independent fewer than five cases had been confirmed since 2015, with some being historic.
There have been 117 confirmed cases of the Zika virus in the United Kingdom since the outbreak a year ago.
The researchers also trapped mosquitoes around the homes of the people involved, and are in the process of testing them for Zika.
In total, 70 residents and nine visitors have acquired Zika from mosquitoes in Florida, which remains the only state in the nation with local spread of the disease.
“Because of the mosquito breeding sites that tested positive, apparently there is still a need to heighten alert on vector control in the area”, she said, adding that the two new cases were among the 12 people tested for Zika in the community.
The CDC has confirmed that the Zika virus is responsible for causing severe defects in unborn children, including microcephaly, which leaves babies with abnormally small heads and often with brains that do not develop properly.
These are the same mosquitoes that spread dengue fever and chikungunya.
There is now no cure or vaccine for Zika, and, according to Thevarajan, “Good surveillance is the first step towards having an appropriate response… so control measures would focus on vector control and elimination or breeding areas, use of insecticides and trying to interrupt the breeding cycle”.
According to Randi Pedersen, epidemiologist for Southwest District Health, Zika typically causes no symptoms or causes only a mild illness lasting up to a week. “We have not been able to definitively identify how the person was infected, and it’s possible we won’t be able to make that determination”.
Two neighborhoods in Florida have been given travel warnings and Puerto Rico is in a full-fledged emergency despite the fact that the CDC has been working with the Puerto Rico Department of Health for nearly a year.
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Zika is also linked to Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can cause breathing problems, paralysis, and even death.
