HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong has confirmed its first case of Zika in a girl who had travelled to the Caribbean, putting the Asian economic hub on high alert for any spread of the mosquito-borne virus that has wreaked havoc in Latin America, the Caribbean and beyond.
Leung Ting-hung, Controller of the Centre for Fitness Protection of the Branch of Health, advised a media convention late on Thursday that relevant measures were taken to prevent the virus from spreading.
He said the authorities’s precedence changed into controlling the mosquito population in Hong Kong.
- Workers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department kill mosquitoes outside a construction site near a residential area in Hong Kong, China August 26, 2016, after the first case of Zika was confirmed in the city.” width=”192″ height=”127″ />
- Workers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department kill mosquitoes outside a construction site near a residential area in Hong Kong, China August 26, 2016, after the first case of Zika was confirmed in the city.
“The patient is a 38-yr-antique girl with top beyond Fitness. She has advanced joint ache and red eyes due to the fact that August 20,” the Department of Health stated in a assertion.
The unidentified female have been within the Caribbean from Aug. 6-20 and returned to Hong Kong on Monday, the Department said.
It stated it might document the case to the world Fitness Corporation.
In February, a mainland Chinese language guy who flew into Hong Kong was diagnosed as having the Zika virus, consistent with broadcaster RTHK, bringing up officials as saying there was little risk he ought to have precipitated an epidemic at some stage in his short leave.
Zika changed into detected in Brazil closing year and has on the grounds that spread throughout the Americas. The virus poses a threat to pregnant girls because it can cause severe start defects. It’s been linked to more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly in Brazil.
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(Reporting through Twinnie Siu, Meg Shen and Clare Baldwin; Editing by way of Louise Eire and Paul Tait)