Jamaica’s Ministry of Health has confirmed the country’s first case of a Zika virus infection – a four-year old child from Portmore, St. Catherine.
The ministry says the child began to showing symptoms on January 17 after returning to Jamaica from a trip to Texas. The mosquito-borne virus has spread across 10 other Caribbean nations, with recent cases appearing in South Florida.
The ministry said it is advising persons, particularly pregnant women, to take extra precaution to prevent being bitten by the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes which transmit the Zika virus.
It said that there is adequate medication available in the public health system at this time to treat the symptoms of Zika virus infection in the event of additional cases being identified.
