Densely packed slums, rampant mosquitoes and a history of rapidly spreading infections make India particularly vulnerable to the devastating Zika virus, posing a massive challenge for the region, health experts warn.
Thailand confirmed Tuesday that a man contracted the mosquito-borne infection, blamed for a surge in the number of brain-damaged babies in South America, while Indonesia has also reported a domestic case.
The cases in Asia come as top US health authorities confirmed this week a patient in Texas contracted the Zika virus through sexual transmission, fuelling fears the disease may spread rapidly.
Officials in India worry it could be next, noting that the Zika and dengue fever-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito thrives in the high-density communities of its teeming cities, where sanitation is often poor.
“In India particularly there is a great threat of the Zika virus spreading quickly given the presence of the Aedes mosquito and favourable environment,” said Om Shrivastav, an infectious diseases specialist,while talking to the news agency Agence France-Presse.
Every summer monsoon, heavy rains lash India for four months, flooding parts of the country, including the slums’ maze of alleyways, which become fertile breeding grounds for mosquitos and lead to a massive spike in tropical diseases.
Soumya Swaminathan, director general of the Indian Council for Medical Research, warned against panicking but said a surge of dengue cases worldwide recently, was a cause for concern.
“(Because of) the way dengue has spread over the last several years across continents and across countries, (and with) Zika being a mosquito-borne illness, there is a potential for spread,” she told Indian news channel NDTV.
The WHO recently has declared the situation a “public health emergency of international concern” and has created a global Zika response unit to contain the virus. Latin American countries, particularly Brazil, have reported a leap in cases of microcephaly since the Zika outbreak was declared in the region last year.