Bangla reports first case of Zika virus

Bangladesh on Tuesday reported the country’s first case of the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne disease that has been linked to birth defects and other health issues.

Zahid Malik, Bangladesh’s state minister for health, told journalists on Tuesday that the trace of the Zika virus was detected within a blood sample taken in 2014 from a sexagenarian whose name has not been disclosed, Xinhua news agency reported.

Malik said in 2013 and 2014 Bangladesh health officials collected blood samples of some patients infected with other diseases like dengue fever.

“Recently traces of Zika virus have been detected in one of those blood samples,” he said and the patient with Zika virus disease is undergoing treatment at a hospital.

Meanwhile, he mentioned that blood samples of some 159 people who had intimacy with the victim were tested negative for Zika transmission.

Meanwhile, French authorities said on Tuesday there was “a very strong suspicion” that the first case of microcephaly linked to the Zika virus had been detected on the Caribbean island of Martinique.

The case would be the first on French territory of microcephaly, a birth defect thought to be caused by Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that has spread rapidly through South America.

French Health Minister Marisol Touraine said a total of 130 pregnant women had been diagnosed with the Zika virus in the Antilles islands, which include Martinique, as well as French Guiana on the South American mainland.

“For one of them, we have elements that lead us to believe her baby has contracted microcephaly and that this microcephaly is directly linked to her infection with the Zika virus,” said Touraine.