Health authorities in Viet Nam confirmed on Sunday the first most likely Zika related microcephaly case in the country. 

A city worker fumigates the area to control the spread of mosquitoes at a university in Bangkok, Thailand, Sept. 13, 2016. Photo by Reuters/ Athit Perawongmetha

The link to the virus was confirmed by laboratory tests, said health officials.

On 14 October, Viet Nam reported the first suspected case of the Zika-linked brain defect syndrome microcephaly in Dak Lak Province.  The local hospital took samples from the 4-month-old girl and her mother and sent them to Japan’s Nagasaki University for further tests.

The National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology later found after at least 5 rounds of tests that the 23-year-old mother, an ethnic woman, had Zika-like symptoms such as rashes and high fever during the first and second trimesters of her pregnancy.

Viet Nam is the second country in Southeast Asia to record cases of Zika-linked mircocephaly after Thailand confirmed two cases in September.

Vietnamese health authorities have recorded 9 Zika cases since the start of this year, all in the southern provinces, including 5 in Ho Chi Minh City.

Tran Dac Phu, the Director of the Preventive Health Department of the Ministry of Health, advised pregnant women to cancel non-essential travel to areas where the Zika virus is prevalent.

Zika generally causes a mild flu-like illness, but statistics revealed that it can increase the risk for microcephaly by 1-10% if a mother is infected in the first trimester of her pregnancy, said Phu.

The disease is spread primarily by mosquitoes, so the Health Ministry is urging people, particularly pregnant women, to take measures to prevent mosquito bites.

(Source: VnExpress)