Udon Thani case spurs Zika scare
HEALTH authorities are trying to prevent more Zika virus cases after a worker from Udon Thani tested positive to the disease.
The worker has already left Thailand for work in Taiwan, where his infection was detected earlier this month.
His five family members in Udon Thani’s Sang Com district have been put under medical surveillance.
“We have to monitor them for 28 days,” the provincial public health chief Dr Mit Prasannakarn said yesterday.
The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis. Other common symptoms include muscle pain and headaches.
The incubation period for the Zika virus disease |is not known, but is likely to be a few days to a |week.
Although most patients have just mild symptoms, severe cases of Zika can cause death. The disease is usually spread through mosquitoes.
Mit said four of the infected workers’ family members did not have any symptoms.
“His mother has had a rash but no fever,” the doctor said.
He said if any of the five family members developed symptoms they would be quarantined.
“As a precaution, we have also subjected pregnant women in their neighbourhood to urine and blood tests to check if they are infected,” he said.
If a pregnant woman is infected with Zika, the baby could suffer serious harm.
Because Nong Khai’s Phon Phisai district borders Sang Com district, local health volunteers yesterday campaigned hard for the eradication of mosquito-breeding grounds.
“It’s quite easy for the virus to spread around. So, we have to issue warnings and use preventive measures,” Nirawan Udomwattana, a hospital director in the province, said.
She said health volunteers had advised locals to sleep under mosquito nets to reduce the risk of infection.
The Disease Control Department’s Dr Amnuay Gajeena said Zika infections had been reported in nine provinces this year and the authorities had successfully controlled the disease in seven provinces.
