Pregnant foreigner becomes first Zika case detected in Myanmar
Myanmar has detected its first Zika infection with state media reporting on Friday that a pregnant foreign woman had been diagnosed with the mosquito-borne virus.
The World Health Organisation warned earlier this month that Zika was likely to spread throughout Asia after being detected in 70 countries worldwide, including at least 19 in the Asia Pacific region.
“Authorities confirmed the infection in the 32-year-old foreign woman yesterday following a laboratory test,” the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported, adding that she was in Yangon, the country’s largest city.
The report cited the health and sports ministry as saying it was the country’s “first case of Zika infection”. It was not immediately clear if the woman was a tourist.
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.
A WHO report released this month warned the Asia Pacific region is likely to see “new cases and possibly new outbreaks of Zika”.
It said the virus is “highly likely to further spread in the region” which includes China, Japan, Australia, most Southeast Asian nations and the Pacific islands.