Urgent recommendations Medical for prevention of Zika virus disease

Facing complicated situation of Zika virus, Ministry of Health has issued recommendations for people to actively prevent this disease.

In the steering meeting of the Ministry of Health on Zika virus prevention on the afternoon of March 30, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Dac Phu (Director of Preventive Medicine Department) said that since the beginning of 2016, the Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology / Pasteur collected and tested 784 Zika virus samples in 32 provinces and cities.

The results are all negative for Zika virus. So far, Vietnam has not recorded any cases tested positive for Zika virus.

However, the World Health Organization has confirmed that the epidemic of Zika virus is an emergency medical event, causing international concern. Zika virus may be associated with neonatal headaches and neural root inflammation syndrome.

Therefore, to proactively prevent Zika virus, the Ministry of Health recommends the following contents to the people:

Effects of agents causing Zika virus disease:

Zika virus is an acute infectious disease mainly transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes . In addition, the virus can be transmitted through sex, blood sugar and from mother to child in people who have been infected with the virus.

Symptoms of Zika virus infection:

People infected with Zika virus often manifest as fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, joint pain, muscle pain, fatigue and headache.

Measures to prevent Zika virus infection:

1. People actively prevent mosquito bites, actively kill mosquitoes and larvae to kill mosquito transmission.
2. If you go, come or return from an area affected by Zika virus, you need to actively monitor your health within 12 days. If there are signs of illness, go to the health facility to proactively report on the travel history and be examined, consulted and treated.
3. Especially people from the epidemic area should remember to use condoms when having sex. It is best not to have sex with your wife for at least 28 days to prevent sexual transmission of Zika virus.
4. Pregnant women need to apply measures to prevent mosquito bites to avoid Zika virus transmission and routine pregnancy check-up. Do not go to the epidemic area when not really necessary.
5. If a pregnant woman is in an epidemic or comes back from an epidemic area if she has symptoms such as fever, rash and at least one of the symptoms such as muscular aches and pains, ocular conjunctivitis needs testing to detect the virus Zika.