A recent epidemiological update from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows that the outbreaks of Zika virus and its related complications may be connected to infections of the virus.
Europe has not had any reports of autochthonous Zika virus infections this year, though one person returning to the Netherlands accounted for an imported case last month. The person had come to the Netherlands from Suriname after three weeks and returned on Nov. 29.
In Brazil, there were some autochthonous transmissions of the virus infection. Since April, there have been 18 different states within Brazil that have confirmed and notified the public of locally acquired Zika virus cases.
Several other Latin American nations have reported locally acquired infections this year. These include
Colombia, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras,
Mexico,
Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela. Several countries in the Pacific have reported sporadic autochthonous cases for this year, including
Fiji, New Caledonia,
Samoa, the Solomon Islands
and
Vanuatu. New Zealand also confirms that it had two cases that were imported from Samoa.
In addition, on Nov. 3 the Cape Verdean Ministry of Health in Africa confirmed a Zika virus outbreak of approximately 1,000 cases. As of today, 17 of the 64 blood samples have tested positive for the virus.
