Vietnam reports first Zika infections, raises alarm

Mosquitoes have infected two women with the Zika virus in Vietnam, health authorities said on Tuesday, in the country's first cases of a disease linked in Brazil to thousands of suspected cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect. A 64-year-old woman and an eight weeks pregnant 33-year-old woman fell sick in late March, and three rounds of tests have confirmed they are Zika-positive, health officials said. The sufferers are in a stable condition and no further infections have been found among their relatives and neighbors, the health ministry said in a statement. Health officials have quarantined the living areas of the patients' families. Zika is carried by mosquitoes, which transmit the virus to humans. The WHO says there is a strong scientific consensus that Zika can cause microcephaly as well as Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis, though conclusive proof may take months or years. Microcephaly is characterized by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems. Zika has been endemic in Asia, with infection cases confirmed in Bangladesh, South Korea, Thailand and China.