5 Mar 2016

Tonga says Zika clean-up working

12:05 pm on 5 March 2016
zika mosquito

Photo: 123RF

The Minister of Health in Tonga says although there have been over 2,000 suspected cases of the Zika virus, a clean-up campaign of mosquito breeding areas in the country is working.

Saia Piukala says there have been 2,010 people with Zika symptoms over the past 10 weeks since the virus was discovered there.

Dr Piukala says 36 of those cases have so far been confirmed.

He says none of the confirmed are pregnant but 17 pregnant women are part of the suspected cases.

Dr Piukala says the accumulation of suspected cases is dropping which is a positive sign.

"In week seven, I think that's the highest suspected cases, there were 629. In week nine, last week, the number of suspected cases dropped down to 167."