|
 The man lives in southeastern port city of Chittagong and was well,
junior health minister Zahid Maleque told a news conference. None of
his relatives had tested positive, he said.
Mahmudur Rahman, director of the ministry's Institute of
Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, said the man had never
traveled outside Bangladesh.
"The virus was found in the man as we tested old blood samples of
nearly 1,000 people afflicted with fever in 2014 and 2015," Rahman
told Reuters.
The Zika outbreak is affecting large parts of Latin America and the
Caribbean, with Brazil the hardest hit.
It is likely to spread to all countries in the Americas except for
Canada and Chile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. The
WHO estimates Zika could eventually affect as many as 4 million
people in the region.
Some cases have been found in Asia, officials in the region have
said.
Zika is carried by mosquitoes that transmit the virus to humans and
it has been linked to a spike in microcephaly, a rare birth defect,
in Brazil.
The WHO declared the Zika outbreak an international health emergency
on Feb. 1, citing a "strongly suspected" relationship between Zika
infection in pregnancy and microcephaly, which can result in
developmental problems.
[to top of second column] |
However, much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the
virus actually causes microcephaly in babies.
Brazil said it has confirmed more than 860 cases of microcephaly,
and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the
mothers. Brazil is investigating more than 4,200 additional
suspected cases of microcephaly.
(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Robert Birsel)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
