Two Vietnamese women have tested positive for the Zika virus, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health said yesterday, the first confirmed cases of the mosquito-transmitted infection in the Southeast Asian nation.
State media reported that the younger of the patients is pregnant.
A 64-year-old from the popular beach resort of Nha Trang became the nation’s first confirmed case after being admitted to hospital complaining of fever, headache and a rash on her legs, the ministry said in a statement.
“She tested positive for the Zika virus on March 31 at Nha Trang’s Pasteur Institute,” and the results have been confirmed by further testing, the statement said.
The second confirmed case was a 33-year-old woman who lives in the southern business hub of Ho Chi Minh City.
“She had symptoms including a rash, conjunctivitis and fatigue,” the statement said, adding that she tested positive for the Zika virus on Thursday last week.
VnExpress, a state media outlet, said the second woman is two months pregnant.
Both patients are in a stable condition and the ministry has monitored the relatives and friends of the two women, but “did not detect any other cases” of the virus, which has been linked to increased rates of microcephaly in babies born to infected mothers.
It was not immediately clear if either of the women had recently traveled abroad.
Vietnam had already raised its alert level against the Zika virus after an Australian tourist tested positive after leaving the nation on March 6, the Thanh Nien newspaper said.
Zika is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also spreads dengue fever, and was first discovered in Uganda in 1947.
The virus is not usually life-threatening, but has been linked to a rise in birth defects, with hundreds of babies born with unusually small heads in nations where the virus is prevalent.
Brazil has been hardest hit by the Zika virus outbreak, with about 1.5 million people infected and 745 confirmed cases of microcephaly in children born to women infected with the virus while pregnant.
It has also spread quickly to more than 30 other nations in Latin America and the Caribbean since last year.
There have been a small number of Zika virus cases across the Greater Mekong region. Nearby Thailand has recorded about five cases a year since 2012, said health officials, who earlier this year stressed that the virus posed no widespread threat.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number