5th Zika infection in Japan within year confirmed

Japanese health authorities said Friday that Zika virus infection has been detected in a boy who returned from Pacific islands in Oceania, the fifth confirmation in the country of the infection of the mosquito-borne virus this year, Kyodo reported.

The boy in Chiba Prefecture, adjacent to Tokyo, was confirmed to have contracted the virus after he came back to Japan on Wednesday after spending 15 months in Pacific islands in Oceania, said the Ministry of Health, Labor and welfare and the Chiba prefectural government. The ministry only gave the boy's age as being between 10 to 19.

"Since Japan is not in a season where mosquitoes are active, we believe the risk for the spread of the disease is extremely low," a health ministry official said.

Source: MENA