The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday confirmed that a 20-year-old South Korean tourist has contracted Zika virus infection in the Philippines, the third confirmed case in the country.
The DOH said the South Korean and his sibling were in one of the country’s most-frequented tourist spots on April 10 to 14. They left the country on April 14. The South Korean showed symptoms of the disease a few days later.
In a telephone interview with reporters on Monday, Health Secretary Janette Garin said the man was hospitalized in South Korea. Garin was informed by South Korean health officials on April 28 that the patient had colds on April 20, rashes on April 22, and fever, sore throat and muscle pain on April 26. The virus was observed in his urine on April 27.
From South Korea, the patient traveled only to the Philippines, Garin said.
She said South Korean officials have informed her office that they had no known Aedes aegypti mosquito cases.
The South Korean was the second “exported case “and the “third confirmed case” in the country.
“We had one [teenager] in Cebu, and an American [woman],” Garin said.
In March the DOH confirmed that an unidentified American woman, who stayed in the Philippines for four weeks, was tested positive for Zika virus when she was on her last week in the country in January this year.
Garin said the patient had the virus symptoms of fever, rash, joint pain, conjunctivitis and muscle pain before returning to the United States. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), Garin said, informed her about the case of the patient who stayed in the Philippines from January 2 to 28.
Another documented case of Zika virus infection in the Philippines was traced in Cebu City in 2012. A 15-year-old boy was reported with its symptoms but has since fully recovered after three weeks of continuous bed rest and medication. After yielding negative from tests on dengue and Chikungunya, the patient’s serum was tested positive for Zika virus.
However, despite the reported cases of Zika virus infection in the country, Garin allayed the fears of the public, saying that “there is no outbreak” of the virus in the Philippines.
“There is no epidemic. The public should not panic,” Garin said.
Meanwhile, reporters have observed last week that DOH workers in Boracay were busy going around and urging tourists to be extra careful and use mosquito repellent to protect themselves from mosquito bites.
For the first time in history, a mosquito-borne Zika virus has been identified as the cause of devastating brain birth defects.
The US CDC recently confirmed that Zika virus is to blame for severe developmental and neurological problems in newborns. The virus is now believed to affect women throughout their pregnancies rather than during just the first trimester, the CDC reported recently.
Brazil is considered the “ground zero” for the Zika virus. Since Zika was detected in Brazil, its two states, Pernambuco and Paraiba, have accounted for 40 percent of the 6,480 reported cases of babies born with shrunken heads, a rare condition known as microcephaly.