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Zika virus
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Ko said the government would press ahead with anti-mosquito controls to control breeding rates. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Hong Kong warned to prepare for first case of Zika virus

Health chief says city needs to be ‘psychologically ready’

Zika virus

Hong Kong should brace for the first case of the Zika virus to be reported in the city, the health minister has warned.

Secretary for Food and Health Dr Ko Wing-man said in a message delivered on the first day of the Year of the Monkey that the city should be psychologically prepared to deal with cases as he sought to ease fears over the virus’s impact.

The mosquito-borne Zika virus has been linked to an increase in birth defects in South America among infants with microcephaly, a condition characterised by an abnormally small head size.

The Aedes Aegypti mosquito photographed in a lab at the Ministry of Health in El Salvador. Photo: AFP
Cases of the virus spread rapidly across South America over the past year, affecting 24 countries in Central and South America, prompting the World Health Organisation to declare an international public health emergency to try to bring the spread of the virus under control.

Ko said the government would press ahead with anti-mosquito controls in an effort to control breeding rates.

Hong Kong regularly issues health advice to rein in infection rates from dengue fever spread by Aedes mosquitoes that are also believed to spread the Zika virus.

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