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BANGKOK — Since the Zika virus first caught the world’s attention following one of the most serious outbreaks, in Brazil last year, Thai health authorities have been at pains to allay local fears that a similar outbreak could occur in the Southeast Asian country, which reported its first confirmed case of Zika in 2012.
But there has been a dramatic increase in the number of Zika cases since the beginning of 2016, with 97 reported across 10 provinces, after only five cases were reported on average each year since 2012.
“We are not in that much of a severe situation. You can look at the numbers. On average, compared to what’s happened in South America, I think [there is] a big difference,” Amnuay told the Nikkei Asian Review.
According to the World Health Organization’s latest report on Zika, 61 countries or territories had reported by June 30 ongoing cases of the virus, which is transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, the same mosquito that also transmits dengue, yellow fever and the chikungunya virus. Sexual transmission of the virus has also been reported in some cases.
The agency on Feb. 1 declared the Zika virus a “public health emergency of international concern.” This was in response to an emerging scientific consensus that the infection is linked to microcephaly, a birth defect causing babies to be born with abnormally small heads, and other neurological complications, including Guillain-Barre syndrome — a cause of facial palsy.
According to WHO’s latest statistics, Brazil has reported over 1,600 cases of microcephaly or other central nervous system malformations potentially associated with the Zika virus, with a handful of cases also reported in other countries, mainly in South America or the Caribbean.
Thailand has no reports of complications such as microcephaly or GBS associated with Zika to date, Waraluk Tangkanakul, a doctor at the disease control department, told the NAR. “I think the situation of the Zika virus [in Thailand] is under control,” she said.
Experts caution, however, that the number of domestic cases will likely increase as knowledge of the virus among clinicians and the general public grows.
“Now there is awareness of [the] Zika virus circulating in Thailand, I think there will be increased detection as a result of more specific diagnosis,” said Duncan Smith, a professor at the Institute of Molecular Biosciences at Mahidol University in Bangkok, who co-authored a recent article in medical journal The Lancet on the origins and spread of the virus.
