With cases found in nearby Singapore and Thailand, including in two Myanmar nationals living in both countries, the mosquito-carrying Zika virus seems poised to be found here any day now.
But so far there are no reported cases.
That didn’t stop some people from recently seeking check-ups at Yangon General Hospital, 7Day news reported last week.
“We checked as the government and public hospitals sent [patients to us],” Daw Khin Nan Lon, deputy chief of Yangon Region’s Public Health Department, told the news outlet, adding that one or some of the patients had come back from Singapore. “We didn’t find the Zika virus in those 8 patients who came to get checked,” she was quoted as saying.
Some of the patients said they had experience symptoms associated with Zika, which can be transferred through mosquito bites and sexual intercourse.
Zika in pregnant women can cause brain defects in newborns such as microcephaly.
The two Myanmar nationals who contracted the virus were living in Singapore and Thailand’s Chiang Mai.
According to a report in the Financial Times, in Asia, Zika cases have been reported in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.
But the center of the problem is far away in the Americas.
Brazil is battling an outbreak, as it the Puerto Rico.
