A 61-year-old man from Sabah, the second Malaysian to test positive for Zika, has reportedly died due to heart complications.
According to The Star Online, the ethnic Dusun man was hospitalised for multiple health problems and he succumbed to the illness at around 5.30pm on Saturday.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah told the news portal that he was rushed to the Queen Elizabeth 2 Hospital’s emergency and trauma unit on August 31 after suffering from diarrhoea and muscle pain.
“He died of complications from his underlying heart disease,” he was quoted as saying.
Dr Noor Hisham told the news portal that the man came down with fever on August 27 and had sought medical treament at a clinic on August 30.
The next day, he reportedly went to the hospital after his fever worsened and he had developed muscle aches as well as diarrhoea.
The man also reportedly suffered from high blood pressure, kidney disease, gout and heart disease, according to Dr. Noor Hisham.
“Due to the multiple illnesses, the patient’s condition was quite serious when he was first seen at the hospital,” he was further quoted as saying.
Dr Noor Hisham added that the man, whose blood and urine sample reportedly tested positive for Zika, was believed to be the first locally-transmitted infection in Malaysia.
“This Zika infection was most likely from a local source of infection as the patient did not have any recent travelling history abroad and was probably bitten by an Aedes mosquito infected with Zika,” Dr. Noor Hisham told the news portal.
Last Thursday, a 58-year-old woman from Bandar Botanic in Klang became the first Malaysian to have contracted the Zika virus after she reportedly visited her daughter in Singapore.
