HPA: Zika virus found on two Maldivians

Health Protection Agency (HPA) has said that Zika virus have been found on two Maldivians while over 500 locals have been tested since January 2015.

Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that Zika virus is not a danger to health.

After the virus started spreading in the South America, preventive measures were taken across the globe. And so testing began on foreign travellers coming into the Maldives.

A statement issued by the HPA tonight said that Zika testing began in the Maldives in January and with the establishment of Zika testing, 517 people with symptoms were tested for the virus.

The HPA has previously said that there were three cases of Zika discovered on foreigners. The first was a national of Finland in January followed by a German and Spanish national who left the country in the middle of the year after vacation.

Zika virus is spread by the Aedes mosquito which is also responsible for dengue fever.

Among the victims of Zika, 80 percent of patients do not show any physical symptoms. Some, however, showed high fever, red rashes, body ache, headaches and joint pains.

The virus is also known to cause microcephaly to infants born of patients according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) of USA. Microcephaly is a homozygous mutation in one of the microcephalin genes causing the skull to stop developing.