Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Australia to begin monitoring for Zika virus

SYDNEY — Health officials in tropical far-north Queensland and Papua New Guinea, to Australia’s north, have begun monitoring for the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which was declared an international public health emergency on Monday by the World Health Organization.

An aedes aegypti mosquito is pictured on a leaf in San Jose, Costa Rica February 1, 2016. Photo: Reuters

An aedes aegypti mosquito is pictured on a leaf in San Jose, Costa Rica February 1, 2016. Photo: Reuters

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SYDNEY — Health officials in tropical far-north Queensland and Papua New Guinea, to Australia’s north, have begun monitoring for the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which was declared an international public health emergency on Monday by the World Health Organization.

Mosquitoes that are known to transmit the Zika virus are found in Queensland, which last reported a case of the illness in March 2014.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill of Papua New Guinea said Monday in a statement that the health authorities there would begin screening tourists and residents returning to the country from overseas for the virus and prepare to manage suspected cases.

“There is a great deal that remains unknown about the Zika virus, but the reports and suspected links to birth defects and neurological problems means that this threat must be taken very seriously,” Mr O’Neill said.

Mr Cameron Dick, Queensland‘s health minister, said he had asked the state’s chief health officer, Jeannette Young, whether the state should increase hospital and public health services to monitor the disease.

The Queensland health department said the Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries the virus was commonly found in tropical and subtropical regions, including the north and central regions of Queensland.

Another mosquito, Aedes albopictus, also has the potential to transmit the virus. This mosquito is only found in the Torres Strait, to the north of Australia, between Australia’s Cape York Peninsula and Papua New Guinea.

While Australia is a long way from the current outbreak, which began in Brazil and has spread to more than 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the authorities are concerned that Australia’s tropical far north will provide an entrance for the virus.

The main concern is the virus’s possible link to microcephaly, a condition that causes babies to be born with unusually small heads.

At a news conference in Geneva yesterday, Dr Margaret Chan, the director general of the World Health Organization, said an international response was needed to minimise the threat in infected countries and contain the global spread of the disease. THE NEW YORK TIMES

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.