Zika Virus in Europe: Danish and Swiss Tourists Test Positive
Tourists from Denmark and Switzerland were diagnosed with the Zika virus after returning from Latin America, where the case is now an epidemic.
According to the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, two people from Switzerland who traveled from Colombia and Haiti were also infected with the virus. Both were not pregnant and are already doing well. Neither of them even required hospital care.
Meanwhile, Straits Times reported that a young Danish, also been infected with the virus, is now getting better and is expected to recover soon, said Dr. Lars Ostergaard, Aarhus Hospital's head.
"A Danish tourist who traveled to Central and South America was diagnosed on his return with the Zika virus," a staff of the hospital in eastern Denmark said in a statement, Tuesday, Jan. 26.
Experts from European countries traced records of Zika cases as early as Mar. 2015. Britain confirmed five while the Netherlands 10, all of which were infected after travelling from South America.
Recently, 22 Caribbean and Latin American countries are now affected with the Zika outbreak. The virus was carried by infected people to the U.S. states of Hawaii, Florida and New York.
As stated by The Guardian, Vladimir Putin is now urging people to work together to win this battle with the Zika virus.
Putin said: "We need to pay attention to this ... work with transportation companies, airlines, understand the signs and react quickly. Of course mosquitoes cannot fly over the ocean, but infected people can and do."
The Brazilian Health Minister Marcelo Castro states that the government has plans to spread awareness regarding the outbreak by deploying 220,000 troops per day starting Feb. 13. Personnel from different groups of the armed forces will conduct the activity. They will start by visiting houses handing out pamphlets.
Though experts and infectious-disease specialists welcomed the government's plan to deploy troops, they still expressed their disappointment saying, "This is something that should have been done years ago."
The Zika virus caused 163 cases of deformity in Brazil alone with an average of 3,893 in 2015 where 49 babies have died.
There is still no available vaccine or treatment for the virus. Experts said it will take more than a decade to generate one.
So far, there are still no known cases of local transmission in Europe or even in U.S. Except for France which has stated that such cases had occurred within the territories and department of the Caribbean basin.
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