Zika virus: NZ Ministry of Health extends advice after case reported in Tonga Featured
30 January 2016. The Ministry of Health has extended its travel advice on Zika virus in the Pacific after one case was reported in Tonga. Tonga and Samoa are now regarded as areas of active transmission, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
The ministry said it has received its first Zika notifications for 2016, involving nine travellers who have recently arrived from the South Pacific. One of the travellers, a 47-year-old man, was admitted to Waikato Hospital with symptoms indicative of Guillain-Barre, a condition which can cause paralysis but from which most patients make a full recovery.
The patient is in a stable condition. The other eight travellers had recovered. Four of the travellers were women, and it had been confirmed that two were not pregnant. Further tests were underway for the two remaining women.
Four of the travellers had been in Tonga, four in Samoa, and one was still to be reported. Chief medical officer Dr Don Mackie said the notifications should be seen in the context of a large number of travellers in the region.
In 2014, there were 57 Zika notifications and last year there were six. "We will be providing advice to incoming travellers and the Ministry is updating its information for health professionals," Mackie said.
"There remains robust mosquito surveillance and monitoring at our borders." The Ministry was working with border agencies and airlines to ensure health messages advising travellers on what to do if they got sick were visible.
The World Health Organisation announced overnight that it would convene an International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on Zika to assess whether the outbreak constitutes a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern".
Mackie said he welcomed this announcement, but until more was known, the Ministry continued to recommend that women who were pregnant or planned to become pregnant in the near term consider delaying travel to areas with Zika virus present.
As an additional precaution, the Ministry also recommended that women returning from Zika-infected areas who might wish to become pregnant should use an effective contraceptive for a period of three weeks after their return.
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