Zika virus: Thai hospitalised in Taiwan

Northern Thailand man hospitalised in Taiwan with mosquito-borne Zika virus thought to be linked to brain-damaging birth defects in infants.

HEALTH

Thai hospitalised in Taiwan after arriving with Zika virus

21/01/2016
Online Reporters

A northern Thailand man has been hospitalised in Taiwan after being confirmed as having the mosquito-borne Zika virus thought to be linked to brain-damaging birth defects in infants.

It was the first confirmed Zika virus case detected in Taiwan.

The Thai national was coming to Taiwan to work for the first time and was stopped at Taoyuan International Airport on Jan 10 after setting off temperature scanners upon arrival in Taipei.

The patient reportedly had a fever and a headache before boarding the plane in Bangkok.

The 24-year-old man who has been living in northern Thailand for the past three months is being held for observation at a local hospital.

The two other northern Thailand passengers travelling with the victim were cleared of both the Zika and dengue fever viruses.

ZIKA VIRUS: WHAT IS IT?

The Zika virus is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is also known to carry the dengue, yellow fever and Chikungunya viruses.

First detected in Africa in 1947, it baffled health experts in the second half of 2015 by spreading quickly through Central and South America.

Symptoms include fevers, mild headaches, skin rashes, joint pain and conjunctivitis.

While lacking complete clinical evidence, doctors and researchers increasingly suspect Zika is connected to cases of microcephaly -- a neurological disorder in which infants are born with smaller craniums and brains. The problem has been especially severe in Brazil, where suspected cases increased to 3,893 by Jan 16 from 3,530 cases 10 days earlier. Fifty infant deaths have been linked to the condition.

ZIKA VIRUS IN THAILAND

According to a medical journal article dated August, 2015 made available on the website of the US National Library of Medicine indicated that no cases of Zika virus had been detected among people living in Thailand but some cases had been detected by people who had traveled to Thailand:

["In Thailand, no autochthonous [originating in the place where found] Zika virus (ZIKV) infections have been confirmed in Thai residents. However, several Zika cases have been reported in travelers returning from Thailand. In early 2013, ZIKV RNA was detected in the blood of a 45-year-old Canadian woman who had recently returned from a vacation in southern Thailand. Another case of ZIKV infection was reported in an adult male from Germany who had developed symptoms 12 days after arrival in Thailand while visiting a number of islands in southern Thailand. Most recently, a suspected case of ZIKV infection was reported in a 41-year-old Japanese male traveler to southern Thailand who had serological evidence of ZIKV infection in an acute blood sample. Acute ZIKV infections in southeast Asia have also been reported from Indonesia and Cambodia. Indirect serological evidence of ZIKV infection has been documented in the past in non-acute blood samples from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines." (See here)]

The article also indicates that the technology for detecting the disease is advanced and therefore many or most Thai hospitals may not yet have this technology.

TRAVEL ADVISORIES

Taiwan has updated its travel advisories for several countries, putting Thailand, along with  Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and the Maldives, on a "watch" list. Central and South America and the Caribbean remain at the "alert' level.

Cases of the disease now have spread to Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/834456/thai-hospitalised-in-taiwan-after-arriving-with-zika-virus

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