1st Zika virus infection case confirmed in Hong Kong; Patient recently traveled to Caribbean

The Zika virus has found its way to Hong Kong.

Health authorities confirmed Hong Kong's first case of the Zika virus infection, according to a South China Morning Post report. A woman, who recently traveled to the Caribbean, contracted the infection and is in an isolation ward in a Hong Kong hospital. Mosquitoes bit the patient while she was in the Caribbean and returned to Hong Kong Aug. 22. However, she began developing symptoms Aug. 20. She had initially refused to cooperate with the health department and the police had to be called in, noted the report.

The patient's blood and urine samples tested positive for Zika on Aug. 25. Hong Kong's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will "conduct an anti-mosquito operation" in areas the patient visited after her return.

More than 50 countries have reported Zika transmission since the virus' outbreak in 2015. In the United States, 2,487 travel-associated Zika cases have been reported, as of Aug. 24, the CDC reports.

 

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