Canadian Tourist Caught Rare Virus In Thailand

[Lite Beer]

Canadian tourist caught rare virus in Thailand

A Canadian woman has been diagnosed with a rare virus after she returned from a trip to Thailand, according to public health authorities. The woman from the western province of Alberta tested positive.

The 45-year-old woman reported having sustained numerous bug bites during a trip to Bangkok and Phuket in January. The Zika virus is usually spread by mosquitoes. She became ill after returning to Canada.

Human infections with the Zika virus have been reported from parts of Africa and Asia. Like the West Nile or dengue fever viruses, it is transmitted to people by a number of mosquito species.

Along with other viruses in this family, Zika virus is enveloped and icosahedral with a non-segmented, single-stranded, positive sense RNA genome. It is most closely related to the Spondweni virus and is one of the two viruses in the Spondweni virus clade.

The virus was first isolated in 1947 from a rhesus monkey in the Zika Forest of Uganda, Africa and was isolated for the first time from humans in 1968 in Nigeria.

From 1951 through 1981, evidence of human infection was reported from other African countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, Egypt, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone and Gabon, as well as in parts of Asia including India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.

It is transmitted by mosquitoes and has been isolated from a number of species in the genus Aedes - Aedes aegypti, Aedes africanus, Aedes apicoargenteus, Aedes furcifer, Aedes luteocephalus and Aedes vitattus. Studies show that the extrinsic incubation period in mosquitoes is about 10 days.

The vertebrate hosts of the virus include monkeys and humans.

The pathogenesis of the virus is hypothesized to first infect dendritic cells near the site of inoculation, and then spread to lymph nodes and the bloodstream.

In terms of replication, flaviviruses generally replicate in the cytoplasm, but Zika virus antigens have been found in infected cell nuclei.

Read More: http://www.eturbonews.com/35215/canadian-tourist-caught-rare-virus-thailand?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Eturbonews-TravelAndTourismIndustryNews+%28eTurboNews+-+for+the+global+travel+professional%29

--e Turbo News 2013-06-02

[A Member]

Unfortunate lady let's hope it's treatable. A little different to many male tourists who leave with an unwanted souvenir of their trip.

[mascarakatze]

what are the symptoms

[geriatrickid]

what are the symptoms

Similar to dengue, except there is a rash as well.

This is one of the issues that stumped the Infectious disease experts in Canada. The initial tests indicated nothing although a second sample showed antibodies suggestive of dengue. The virology team used reverse-transcriptase PCR to establish the diagnosis of ZIKV infection.

As a sidenote, while ZIKV can be considered rare in itself, dengue and west nile virus illnesses are not. Had this occurred in the Canadian west nile season of May-October, this woman may have had her diagnosis delayed as the search emphasis would have been on west nile which is a growing problem in Canada.

And now the big question; Why hasn't the Thai media printed anything? The woman was in Phuket 28 Jan-2 Feb, 2013, traveling and spending time at various beaches where the patient noted many more mosquito bites as she was told that it was mosquito season. On her return to Bangkok, on 2 Feb, 2013 ], she changed her hotel to one by the river, where she sustained more mosquito bites. ZIKA is not that common in Thailand and this diagnosis is a game changer. Had there been any information filed by the MoH with WHO or with the international research facilities such as the EU, Australian, US or Canadian, the data would have been picked up when the Canadian virologists did their research. How many other people have been stricken that no one knows about?

This cannot be an isolated case and if the local Thai health officials are mistakenly diagnosing the ZIKA infections as dengue, that is not a good practice.

I am willing to predict that the Thai government and local tourism officials will do their utmost to hush this up.

[NongKhaiKid]

what are the symptoms

Similar to dengue, except there is a rash as well.

This is one of the issues that stumped the Infectious disease experts in Canada. The initial tests indicated nothing although a second sample showed antibodies suggestive of dengue. The virology team used reverse-transcriptase PCR to establish the diagnosis of ZIKV infection.

As a sidenote, while ZIKV can be considered rare in itself, dengue and west nile virus illnesses are not. Had this occurred in the Canadian west nile season of May-October, this woman may have had her diagnosis delayed as the search emphasis would have been on west nile which is a growing problem in Canada.

And now the big question; Why hasn't the Thai media printed anything? The woman was in Phuket 28 Jan-2 Feb, 2013, traveling and spending time at various beaches where the patient noted many more mosquito bites as she was told that it was mosquito season. On her return to Bangkok, on 2 Feb, 2013 ], she changed her hotel to one by the river, where she sustained more mosquito bites. ZIKA is not that common in Thailand and this diagnosis is a game changer. Had there been any information filed by the MoH with WHO or with the international research facilities such as the EU, Australian, US or Canadian, the data would have been picked up when the Canadian virologists did their research. How many other people have been stricken that no one knows about?

This cannot be an isolated case and if the local Thai health officials are mistakenly diagnosing the ZIKA infections as dengue, that is not a good practice.

I am willing to predict that the Thai government and local tourism officials will do their utmost to hush this up.

I your last sentence says it all.

[soi41]

Slow day on the newsfront??

Exactly same OP as a couple of days ago!!

[chainarong]

what are the symptoms

Similar to dengue, except there is a rash as well.

This is one of the issues that stumped the Infectious disease experts in Canada. The initial tests indicated nothing although a second sample showed antibodies suggestive of dengue. The virology team used reverse-transcriptase PCR to establish the diagnosis of ZIKV infection.

As a sidenote, while ZIKV can be considered rare in itself, dengue and west nile virus illnesses are not. Had this occurred in the Canadian west nile season of May-October, this woman may have had her diagnosis delayed as the search emphasis would have been on west nile which is a growing problem in Canada.

And now the big question; Why hasn't the Thai media printed anything? The woman was in Phuket 28 Jan-2 Feb, 2013, traveling and spending time at various beaches where the patient noted many more mosquito bites as she was told that it was mosquito season. On her return to Bangkok, on 2 Feb, 2013 ], she changed her hotel to one by the river, where she sustained more mosquito bites. ZIKA is not that common in Thailand and this diagnosis is a game changer. Had there been any information filed by the MoH with WHO or with the international research facilities such as the EU, Australian, US or Canadian, the data would have been picked up when the Canadian virologists did their research. How many other people have been stricken that no one knows about?

This cannot be an isolated case and if the local Thai health officials are mistakenly diagnosing the ZIKA infections as dengue, that is not a good practice.

I am willing to predict that the Thai government and local tourism officials will do their utmost to hush this up.

I think they hush up lots of going's on , how many gun shot murders a week happen in the L.O.S.

[Cuban]

One person affected ?

I don't see a reason to make a huge fuss, just remind people to use anti-bug sprays.

[Emdog]

"Along with other viruses in this family, Zika virus is enveloped and icosahedral with a non-segmented, single-stranded, positive sense RNA genome. It is most closely related to the Spondweni virus and is one of the two viruses in the Spondweni virus clade."

That's what I always thought! Those silly viruses always going around in disguise!

[FNQ]

I was one of the first case's diagnosed with Ross River Fever in OZ after a tour of duty (thought i would Die) then a rebout 2 years later(never the same since).

I feel for her and anyone who has has had a Malaria type infection.

Chock Dee to all.

[tolsti]

Headlines in the press....

Farang tourist brings disease to Thailand.

[geriatrickid]

One person affected ?

I don't see a reason to make a huge fuss, just remind people to use anti-bug sprays.

One person that was identified. This illness is not a one off case. There most likely have been several other cases that have either gone unreported or undiagnosed or hushed up.

This virus can be found in Malaysia and if it is now diagnosed in a Phuket/Bangkok tourist this suggests the mosquito vectors are migrating. Of greater significance, is that there have not been any reports of the illness in the region. Something is very, very wrong with Thailand's infectious disease surveillance system if the illness is diagnosed in a foreign visitor and not a resident. This means that people may be incorrectly diagnosed with dengue. although there are no cures for dengue, ZIKV or west nile, the treatment of the symptoms is different for some patients, particularly those with chronic disease.

In order to properly car for a patient, you have to know what illness the patient has. The concern should be that the Thai health facilities may be unable to do a reliable diagnostic test. It speaks volumes that a foreign government's facilities diagnosed the case.

[JDGRUEN]

"The virology team used reverse-transcriptase PCR to establish the diagnosis of ZIKV infection"... This is probably a factor in the Thai health authorities not isolating a virus like this. The Thai health authorities could have this capability - but maybe not. Also the actual disease - so far - shows to be mild to moderate in severity. Symptomatic treatment seems to be enough to get people through it. If this disease / virus was killing people, I think a whole different approach would be taken - hopefully. The biggest problem is that the virus could mutate and become much more of a problem.

[doctorproc156]

This is more than likely being diagnosed as dengue for people visiting local hospitals, I hope the Health ministry recognizes this possibility and updates and re-educates its' doctors on how to differentiate between the 2 viruses. I hope the tourism ministry as well as other related departments don't hush this up and act on this as this could quickly become an epidemic. ZIKV can also be sexually transmitted which means Human to Human transmission is possible unlike the Dengue and the West Nile virus.

[Cuban]

In other news today: many killed in incidents involving cars & motorbikes, new infections reported resulting from sexual contact, unshielded coughing and hand-mouth cross contamination where poor hand washing standards are maintained.

I fail to see how this case is different from any other disease whose method of propagation is a biting insect.

Mass use of insect killing chemicals has been long proven to damage the enviroment and kill "good" bugs, and nature just mutates new insects that are immune anyway.

Covering up and using DEET etc, particularity when in a mozzie zone and even more so if a tourist for whom are attractive to mozzies due to sweeter looking blood, mozzies being attracted (eyes working in infra-red) to those with higher blood sugar, maybe she was diabetic or on that spectrum.

Not seen elsewhere in this thread (sorry if I missed it) another news source reports:

She became ill after returning to Canada but recovered after about 2 1/2 weeks. <- Link

So it's not has if her arm has fallen off or she is at death's door - she went on holiday got bitten and was ill - she is now better.

[krisb]

One person affected ?

 

 

I don't see a reason to make a huge fuss, just remind people to use anti-bug sprays.

Exactly. Take care and use sprays.

Sent from my LG-E612 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[sunshine51]

Here's the Wiki link about the virus for anybody that's interested...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zika_virus

Be sure to scroll down to the Human to Human transmission bit at the end

of the article for this...."In 2009, it was proved that Zika virus can be sexually

transmitted between humans." And read how this was discovered. Perhaps

the Canuk got laid???? Just saying.....

[Payboy]

Time to dust out that reward package from 2003 once again. Maybe die-one-get-one-free this time.

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-22976825_ITM

[sunshine51]

Time to dust out that reward package from 2003 once again. Maybe die-one-get-one-free this time.

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-22976825_ITM

In re to the Darwin Awards are we Payboy...hah! OOOOooops...wrong year!

Edited June 3, 2013 by sunshine51