Japan ramps up anti-Zika virus efforts following WHO declaring global emergency

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on Tuesday said it was ramping up measures to safeguard against the Zika virus, following the World Health Organization (WHO) designating the virus as a public health emergency of international concern.

While there have, as yet, been no confirmed cases of the virus in Japan, with the mosquito-borne disease spreading predominantly in Central and South America, the health ministry here said that all medical facilities are to report any cases diagnosed to the ministry.

In addition, the ministry said that it intends to designate the virus in a category that requires that it must be reported to doctors.

While testing kits are being distributed to medical facilities around the county, and pregnant women are being actively warned at airports to not travel to countries affected by the virus, quarantine stations to screen possible carriers may also be set up nationwide, following further government approval.

"We urge people, particularly pregnant women, to refrain from visiting sites where the disease has spread," Japan's Health Minister, Yasuhisa Shiozaki, said Tuesday, reiterating the government's plans to designate the disease under the law on prevention of infectious diseases and make legal provisions for health checks and screenings to be carried out.

In the meantime, officials at airports are trying to prevent the virus, which has spread to more than 20 countries in Latin America, from reaching Japan, by screening passengers arriving from potentially affected countries, using thermography technology to monitor body temperatures.

Passengers are also being urged to report any instances of undue fevers, headaches, muscle or joint pains, to health officials, as they could be symptomatic of the virus.

The World Health Organization has said that an outbreak of the virus, which can cause birth defects in new-born babies, was detected in Brazil in May last year, and while no cases as yet have tested positive here, three Japanese vacationers, local media said, contracted the virus; two of whom were staying on Bora Bora island in French Polynesia and one visited Koh Samui in Thailand in 2013.