Thai with Zika virus quarantined in Taiwan
Taiwan has quarantined a Thai national from a northern province who came to the country for work after he was diagnosed with zika, a mosquito-borne virus that can cause smaller a than-normal head circumference and impaired brain development in the foetus
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said on Tuesday that a zika infection has been confirmed in a Thai national coming to Taiwan to work for the first time.
The 24-year-old man, whose name was not revealed, was detected with a fever when he arrived at Taoyuan International Airport on January 10. Further tests showed that he had the mosquito-borne disease, and he is now being observed at a local hospital.
Liu Ting-ping, director of the Epidemic Intelligence Centre under the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), said the Thai national had a fever and a headache before coming to Taiwan and was stopped at the fever screening station at the airport.
Two other people from the northern Thailand who accompanied the patient to Taiwan were tested negative for the zika virus, which is similar to dengue fever.
CDC Director General Steve Kuo said this was the first zika virus case detected in Taiwan since the agency began to monitor and test for the virus.
The CDC has listed the zika virus as a second-category notifiable infectious disease, meaning that doctors should notify the CDC of suspected cases within 24 hours.
The agency has updated its travel advisory for several countries in view of the spreading outbreak based on its three-level system — watch, alert and warning — in order of severity.
It has issued an “alert” advisory for Central and South America and the Caribbean. It also issued a “watch” advisory for Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Maldives.
Liu said the Zika virus spread quickly in Central and South America in the latter part of 2015.
There have also been cases in Cabo Verde in Africa and in Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia and sporadic imported cases in Europe, Canada and the United States from Central and South America.
Symptoms include fevers, mild headaches, skin rashes, joint pain and conjunctivitis.
Liu noted the Zika virus has been linked to microcephaly — a condition where a child is born with a smaller-than-normal head and impaired brain development — in Brazil and Hawaii, where pregnant woman may have contracted the mosquito-borne virus and transmitted to their babies.
But Liu said it has “yet to be determined” whether microcephaly is in fact connected to the zika virus.
