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 Zika, linked to severe birth defects including babies born with
abnormally small heads, is wreaking havoc in Brazil where the
government has deployed more than 200,000 troops to eradicate
mosquitoes.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that the virus
was "spreading explosively" and could infect as many as four million
people in the Americas.
No treatment or vaccine is available.
In Thailand, where just one case of Zika has been reported so far
this year, the likelihood of Zika spreading was low, officials said,
partly because of better access to health care and because Thailand
was dealing with a smaller area.
"Thailand is a medium-sized country with a good public health system
and easy-to-access medical facilities," Amnuay Gajeena,
director-general of the Disease Control Department, told Reuters.
Thailand detected its first Zika case in 2012 and has recorded an
average of five cases a year, according to the Ministry of Public
Health.
Kriengsak Limkittikul, assistant professor at the Department of
Tropical Medicine at Mahidol University in Bangkok, said there was
inadequate information about Zika but that it was "only a matter of
time" before more cases were reported.
Thailand has confirmed one case of the virus so far this year.
Earlier this month, Taiwan reported one case of Zika infection in a
man from northern Thailand.
"NO EVIDENCE OF IMMUNITY"
The WHO said on Sunday the rapid spread of Zika in the Americas was
due to a lack of immunity among a population that had not been
previously exposed to the virus.
Amnuay said there was "no technical evidence" of widespread immunity
in Thailand but individuals exposed to the virus would "of course
develop" antibodies as with other viruses.
The Zika virus is spread through the Aedes aegypti mosquito -
responsible for dengue, yellow fever and other tropical diseases.
The WHO's Western Pacific Region Office in Manila said as long as
Aedes mosquitoes circulated in the region "it can be anticipated
that the virus will emerge".
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Malaysia's Health Ministry said Zika had not yet been detected. "If
it is introduced by an infected Malaysian or by a visitor to
Malaysia, it could spread quickly," said Lokman Hakim Sulaiman,
Malaysia's Health Ministry deputy director-general.
Neighboring Singapore has not detected any Zika infections but the
government said there was a high risk of transmission if cases were
imported to Singapore, a regional travel hub.
In the Western Pacific, Zika was first reported in Micronesia in
2007. It was reported in French Polynesia in October 2013, and since
then, a number of Pacific Island countries have reported cases,
including New Caledonia, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu,
Fiji and Samoa.
In Australia, the foreign ministry's travel advice website said
there had been no reported cases of Zika.
The New Zealand Herald reported on Friday that one local man had
been admitted to hospital with symptoms linked to the Zika virus.
The Ministry of Health said it had received nine Zika notifications
this year, the newspaper reported.
All of the travelers had been in the Pacific Islands and eight of
them had recovered.
(Additional reporting by Matt Siegel in SYDNEY, Aradhana Aravindan
in SINGAPORE, Manuel Mogato in MANILA and Panarat Thepgumpanat in
BANGKOK; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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