“For pregnant women, preventive measures against insect-transmitted diseases have been recommended, such as avoiding mosquito-prone areas, wearing long-sleeved clothing, using insect repellents following global health organisation guidelines,” said Prof Yong Poovorawan, head of the Center of Excellence in Clinical Virology at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.
He added that there is a risk to tourists; a 33 year old woman tested positive in the Netherlands after a trip to Thailand in December, while two patients were hospitalised with acute infections in Germany after a three-week holiday in November.
“However, in comparison to the total number of tourists visiting Thailand … it’s not surprising to have had cases of tourists contracting diseases like Zika. This pattern aligns with the situation among the Thai population,” Prof Poovorawan said.
The jump in Zika comes as dengue – which is also spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito – erupted across the globe, with major outbreaks in countries as diverse as Peru, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh and Thailand.
“Diseases transmitted by insects … tend to have cycles of outbreaks where there might be a surge in cases followed by periods of relative calm, lasting anywhere from one to three years,” Prof Poovorawan told the Telegraph.
“Similar to this pattern, Zika virus cases have increased this year, paralleling the rise in dengue fever cases,” he said, adding that it is the highest Zika count in Thailand since 2016.
“It’s challenging to predict whether [2024] will experience a severe outbreak or not.”
