Burden of Zika virus in different South East Asian populations with febrile illness. (360G-Wellcome-204248_Z_16_Z)

Our planned studies will identify if ZIKV is a current and neglected problem in three SE Asian populations located in Thailand, Vietnam and on the Thailand Myanmar border. Although ZIKV is reported to be endemic in Asia its prevalence and true significance in South East Asia is not well characterised. Transmission of ZIKV Myanmar has not yet been reported, there have only been two confirmed cases recently reported in Vietnam and there are only seven published confirmed cases of ZIKV infections in Thai residents (these were reported by the Thai Ministry of Public Health in 2015). There are several cases of confirmed ZIKV infections from travellers returning from Thailand, indicating that ZIKV is an under and/or misdiagnosed infection in this country. Further work is therefore urgently required. This is important not only for local public health planning, but also from a global health perspective as travellers to and from these regions may be at risk of infection with associated complications and/or pose a transmission risk to naïve populations.