On Monday, a 28-year-old Chinese citizen returning from Venezuela was diagnosed with the Zika virus by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Having contracted the disease while traveling in Venezuela, the patient passed through the Netherlands and Russia before landing at Guangzhou's Baiyun International Airport and being quarantined due to a fever, Xinhua reports.
Much like China's first Zika case, the infected patient is now recovering with a normal body temperature.
China’s first infection was reported last week, when it emerged a 34-year-old Jiangxi man was being treated at a hospital in his hometown after returning from a trip in, again, Venezuela.
Within three days the man had made a full recovery and, on February 9, he was discharged after "[t]ests on his serum, urine and saliva samples returned negative results," according to the China News Service.
The Zika virus is transmitted by the Aedes mosquito in Sub-Saharan Africa and South America, and its symptoms are usually mild, and include headaches, dizziness and a fever. However, when contracted by pregnant women, it has been linked with an increased likelihood of their infants suffering from microcephaly – a birth defect in which babies are born with smaller-than-usual brains.
The current outbreak is believed to have started in Brazil, where about 1.5 million people are said to have been infected.
[Image via University of California – Agriculture and Natural Resources]
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