The Department of Health confirmed that two more people tested positive for Zika virus in Iloilo, bringing to eight the total number of recorded cases in the Philippines.
Health secretary Paulyn Ubial told reporters on Tue, Sep 13, that the two new Zika patients live with the 45-year-old woman who was found positive for the virus last week.
The two new cases exhibited “mild skin rash not accompanied by other signs and symptoms unlike the first confirmed case who presented with skin rash, joint pains and red eyes,” reports Philippine Daily Inquirer.
None of them are pregnant, and they are now under home quarantine.
It was initially reported that the sixth Zika patient contracted the virus while out of the country, but DOH later clarified its statement, saying that the “index case” had no history of travel to any affected country in the past two weeks, and was more likely a case of local transmission.
The DOH is now intensifying its surveillance and mosquito-control efforts in Iloilo, with health personnel visiting 88 households near the house of three infected residents.
They found mosquito breeding sites “positive for larvae/pupae of Aedes aegypti, the principal mosquito vector for the Zika virus.”
The DOH directed a more intensive mosquito control campaign to prevent the spread of the virus in other areas.
