A pregnant foreign woman in Yangon has been confirmed as Myanmar’s first case of the Zika virus, according to state TV.
The woman, aged 32, was diagnosed following laboratory tests, Myanmar TV reported on Thursday.
Authorities are said to be stepping up measures to control the mosquito-borne virus, which has been linked to the birth defect microcephaly and other neurological disorders in children and adults.
“We’ve been conducting extensive awareness campaigns and anti-mosquito measures across the country by coordinating and cooperating with other ministries and the media,” Nyan Win Myint, an official of Myanmar’s Ministry of Health, told Reuters earlier this month.
The country’s 17 main hospitals had been monitoring birth defects, he said, and none had been linked to Zika.
Myanmar was last month included in a US travel warning urging pregnant women to postpone visits to 11 Southeast Asian countries due to the risk of contracting Zika. Dozens of cases, including pregnant women, have been reported in Thailand and Singapore.
But a statement released then by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that many residents of Southeast Asia are believed to be immune to the virus because it has been endemic here for years.
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