MANILA (Mabuhay) – The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday announced that two more persons in Iloilo City have tested positive for Zika, bringing to eight the number of recorded cases in the Philippines.
Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial said the two new Zika patients are living in the same house with the sixth patient found positive for the virus.
Ubial said that all three patients showed minor symptoms of Zika such as fever and mild skin rash.
None of the three have been hospitalized and have already recovered, she said.
She, however, said the patients are still under observation and under home quarantine.
The DOH announced last week that the sixth Zika patient contracted the virus while out of the country.
It sent a team to Iloilo City to check if other people living with and near the sixth patient have also contracted Zika.
Ubial said at least 88 houses around the residence of the sixth patient were checked by the city government and found the presence of larvae of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes., the carrier of Zika as well as dengue.
She said the two new cases were among the 12 people tested for Zika in the community.
Meanwhile, Ubial said that the Iloilo City government has intensified its search and destroy drive to rid the community of the Zika-carrying mosquitoes.
She urged other local government units to also intensify their anti-mosquito campaign in their respective areas.(MNS)