Myanmar reports 1st Zika infection
Print Edition
MYANMAR’S government said yesterday that a pregnant foreign woman has been diagnosed with the country’s first case of Zika, a mosquito-borne virus linked to birth defects.
The World Health Organization warned earlier this month that Zika was likely to spread throughout Asia after being detected in 70 countries, including at least 19 in the Asia Pacific region.
While the virus has been present in Southeast Asia for years, there has been an uptick in the number of recorded cases in recent months.
“Authorities confirmed the infection in the 32-year-old foreign woman yesterday following a laboratory test,” the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said yesterday.
Soe Lwin Nyein, director of Myanmar’s public health department, told reporters she was the country’s “first Zika victim.”
He did not disclose the woman’s nationality but said she had been living in Myanmar for several years and was currently in Yangon, the country’s largest city.
Zika causes only mild symptoms in most people, including fever, sore eyes and a rash.
But pregnant women with the virus risk giving birth to babies with microcephaly — a deformation that leads to abnormally small brains and heads.
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