Overall, there are 30 Zika-infected pregnant women being monitored in Thailand.
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“We remind all residents who may be traveling to countries where Zika has been locally transmitted to be extremely vigilant in protecting themselves against mosquito bites and educating themselves about the virus, its symptoms and risks, especially to pregnant women”, County Executive Dennis Levinson said. On Sept 3, it recorded its first locally transmitted Zika case, a 61-year-old Sabah man who did not have any recent history of travel overseas and later died of heart-related complications. The virus can cause birth defects and can also result in microcephaly in which the baby’s head is smaller than expected.
The woman is studying at a university in southern Taiwan and had returned home over the summer vacation, before visiting Japan with friends between August 26 and September 3.
So far, South America has suffered the most from the Zika virus. She was 24-weeks pregnant at the time of infection and has since recovered, she said.
Health Secretary Paulyn Jean B. Rosell-Ubial urged all local government units (LGUs) to implement intensive mosquito control campaigns to stop the spread of Zika virus.
“Although it is not certain that these types of close contact were the source of transmission, family contacts should be aware that blood and body fluids of severely ill patients might be infectious”, they wrote in a quick report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It began to spread more widely in May, when an outbreak was reported in Brazil.
Ng said the state has initiated measures to curb the breeding of Aedes mosquitoes, which spreads the both the Zika and the more risky dengue viruses, and called on all to help eradicate the vectors.
Between Sept 1 and 7, the Health Ministry found 39 cases of people experiencing Zika symptoms.
“But we will only know how many Malaysians are immune to the virus if we decide to conduct community-level blood screenings nationwide”. “We had not predicted that such a large area of the fetal brain would be damaged so quickly”, said researcher Dr. Lakshmi Rajagopal, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington.
Gan said the ministry has worked with National Environment Agency’s Environmental Health Institute to put in place a surveillance program for Zika two years ago, Xinhua news agency reported.
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The mosquito-borne Zika virus has mild effects on most people, but can be fatal for unborn children.
