A man has contracted the Zika virus in Thailand, officials said Tuesday, as a global alert intensifies over the mosquito-borne infection blamed for a surge in serious birth defects in South America, AFP reports.
Authorities said the 22-year-old Thai man is likely to have caught the same strain of the virus that has caused panic in countries such as Brazil and Colombia.
The virus "was confirmed by blood tests", Air Vice Marshall Santi Srisermpoke, director of Bangkok's Bhumibol Adulyadej Hospital, told reporters.