TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) — Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Friday (February 26) said Japan had little to worry about after a male teenager near Tokyo was found to have been infected with the Zika virus.
“It is not yet the season for mosquitoes to be active in our nation, so there is little concern that this case will trigger a large scale infectIon. However the government has held meetings to decide supplementary steps and continue to work together with relevant ministries,” Suga said.
Japan’s National Institute Of Infectious Diseases on Thursday (February 25) confirmed the teenager had been infected with the Zika virus after a visit to Brazil, Japan’s first case of the infection since the virus started spreading widely in Latin America last year.
The youth stayed in Brazil for 12 days through February 20 and ran a fever on his last day. He also came out in a rash a few days after his return, but is now in a stable condition without fever and is resting at home, according to the Japanese health ministry.
The teenager, in Kanagawa prefecture, southwest of the Japanese capital, is the fourth case of Zika virus infection in Japan. Three Japanese were found positive in 2013 and 2014 after returning from French Polynesia and Thailand.
Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly.
Brazil is investigating the potential link between Zika infections and more than 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly, a condition marked by abnormally small head size that can result in developmental problems.