DOH Confirms Two More Zika Cases in Iloilo City

MANILA: The Philippine Department of Health (DOH) has announced that two more persons in Iloilo City have tested positive for Zika, bringing to eight the number of recorded cases in the country.

The two new Zika patients are living in the same house with the sixth patient found positive for the virus, GMA News quoted Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial as saying.

Ubial reportedly said that all two new patients showed minor symptoms of Zika such as fever and mild skin rash.

“Because they have mild infection, none if them required hospitalization,” she said. “As of this press conference, they have no more signs and symptoms… We’re still monitoring their blood and urine to find out if they are still positive. In the meantime, they are home quarantined, so they stay at home.”

The DOH reportedly said last week that the sixth Zika patient contracted the virus while out of the country. It sent a team to Iloilo City to check if other people living with and near the sixth patient have also contracted Zika.

At least 88 houses around the residence of the sixth patient were checked by the city government and found the presence of larvae of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes., the carrier of Zika as well as dengue, Ubial reportedly said.

“Because of the mosquito breeding sites that tested positive, apparently there is still a need to heighten alert on vector control in the area,” she said, adding that the two new cases were among the 12 people tested for Zika in the community.

The two new patients contracted the virus after being bitten by Zika-carrying mosquitoes, reported GMA News.

(Source: FilipinoTimes.ae)