“CDC is working with other public health officials to monitor for ongoing Zika virus transmission”.
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A 43-year-old man, who recently returned from Brazil, tested positive earlier in the day for the infectious disease, becoming the first South Korean patient diagnosed with the Zika virus.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the Zika patient was in Brazil between February 17 and March 9, returning to Gwangyang on March 11, after a brief layover in Germany.
It is likely to spread to all countries in the Americas except for Canada and Chile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
In the case that you do travel to areas with Zika, Gino Solla says the best way to protect yourself is to use insect repellant, condoms during sexual intercourse, and to stay away from places with swamp-like and tropical areas.
But since the same mosquito was behind the Zika virus infection and WHO had declared an global public health emergency, the government made a decision to test all the negative samples yet again for Zika virus.
The virus, which has a incubation period of as long as two weeks, is particularly risky for pregnant women as it is thought to be linked to a rare birth defect, microcephaly that causes newborn babies to have unusually small heads and damaged brains. The data from Brazil shows that around 39% of the 2,212 suspected cases of microcephaly have been confirmed with the birth defect.
South Korean health authorities have confirmed the first case of a Korean patient being infected with the Zika virus, but they decided not to raise the alert level as the virus is less contagious.
The Zika virus has also been associated with this nerve disorder which can cause muscle weakness and paralysis, the disorder can also cause death in some cases. “He was bitten by mosquitoes in the north-eastern region of Brazil”, Jung added.
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In July, the country then reported an increase in cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), followed by an unusual increase in microcephaly among newborns in late October.
