The Bangladeshi Health Ministry has reported the first local transmission of Zika virus in a 67-year-old Chittagong man, according to a Times of India report.

Dhaka
Bangladesh
Image/CIA

“The virus was found in the man as we tested old blood samples of nearly 1,000 people afflicted with fever in 2014 and 2015,”according to Mahmudur Rahman, director of the ministry’s Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), from 1 January 2007 to 16 March 2016, Zika virus transmission was documented in a total of 59 countries and territories.

Zika virus disease (Zika) is a disease caused by Zika virus that is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito. The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week after being bitten by an infected mosquito. People usually don’t get sick enough to go to the hospital, and they very rarely die of Zika. For this reason, many people might not realize they have been infected. Once a person has been infected, he or she is likely to be protected from future infections