By Jane Wardell SYDNEY (Reuters) - Two Australians were
diagnosed with the Zika virus after returning home from travels in the
Caribbean, a state health service said on Tuesday, confirming the first cases
of the mosquito-borne virus in the country this year. Officials also said that
mosquitos carrying the virus had been detected at Sydney International Airport,
but stressed that it was unlikely the virus would establish local transmission
given the lack of large numbers of the Aedes Aegypti mosquitos. Blackberry Display Picture, Find Here!
Confirmation of
the Australian cases came just a day after the World Health Organization
declared the Zika virus to be an international public health emergency due to
its link to underdeveloped brains in some babies. There is no vaccine against
the mosquito-borne virus. The New South Wales (NSW) health department said the
two Sydney residents were diagnosed with the Zika virus on Friday after
returning to Australia from Haiti. Formal diagnosis can take several weeks and
the department did not disclose when the couple were tested. It said the pair
had mild cases of the virus and had recovered. "It is very unlikely that
Zika virus will establish local transmission in NSW as the mosquitos that
spread the infection are not established here - although they are found in some
parts of north Queensland," Vicky Sheppeard, director of communicable
diseases at NSW Health, said in a statement. Earlier on Tuesday, the Department
of Agriculture said it was imposing additional cabin spraying of insecticides
on flights arriving into Sydney from Southeast Asia. The department said the
step-up in procedures, which includes adding extra mosquito vector monitoring
traps, followed the "recent detection" of Aedes Aegypti mosquitos at
Sydney airport. "These measures are undertaken to prevent these mosquitoes
establishing breeding populations in Australia, thereby preventing the
potential for the local spread of these diseases," the department said in
a statement.
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