Illustrative photo (Source: VNA) Quang Tri (VNA) - The central province of Quang Tri has taken numerous comprehensive measures against the Zika virus along the border with Laos, where a case was recently discovered.
The La Lay international border gates welcome more than 180 visitors into Vietnam per day. They are conducting around-the-clock monitoring to minimise risk.
Maria Ilorencia, an Argentinean visitor who entered Vietnam from Laos at the La Lay international border gate said she felt secure thanks to strict medical check-ups at Vietnam’s border gates.
Apart from keeping track of the temperatures of travelers going through the two border gates, they also conduct chemical sprays for means of transport entering Vietnam.
Since early this year, the La Lay border gate has received 22,000 travelers coming to Vietnam.
According to the Ministry of Health, Zika, first detected in Uganda’s Zika Forest in 1947, is transmitted to humans through the Aedes mosquito, which is also the main carrier of dengue fever.
Besides mild fever, rash, muscle pain, joint pain, headache, pain behind the eyes and conjunctivitis, the virus has been linked to micro cephaly, a condition that causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and in the vast majority of cases, brain damage.
There is currently no cure for the Zika virus and no vaccine for it.
The virus has to date spread to 44 countries and territories across the world, mainly in Latin America. No cases of Zika virus have been recorded in Vietnam, but on March 22, the WHO informed of an Australian visitor who tested positive for Zika after returning from Vietnam.-VNA
