Little-known virus causes outbreak in Pacific isles

HONG KONG, July 10 (Reuters) An epidemic caused by a little-known virus has broken out on a group of islands in the western Pacific Ocean, as warmer weather and heavy rain fuel the spread of mosquito-borne diseases in many parts of the world.

The outbreak of Zika, carried by mosquitoes, has made 60 people ill in the Yap islands in Micronesia since April and experts are trying to confirm a further 65 probable cases.

''It's spread by mosquitoes and when the virus got carried to different individuals in our community. Nobody had the right antibodies to fight the virus, so a larger number of our community got ill from it,'' media director Thane Hancock of a regional health network, Yap Epinet, said in an interview.

The epidemic comes as dengue, which is also mosquito-borne, is making an aggressive comeback in Southeast Asia, infecting tens of thousands this year.

Like dengue, zika belongs to a class known as flaviviruses.

Although zika has similar symptoms as dengue, such as fever, pain in the joints, headache, fatigue, diarrhoea, conjunctivitis and a rash, it is milder. There have been no deaths so far, and no one has been admitted to hospital.

''Our healthcare system is doing fine. We haven't been overloaded by heaps of patients coming in. We have been fortunate in that way,'' said Hancock, adding that measures, such as removing breeding sites, had been implemented to curb the spread.

The Zika epidemic in Yap appears to have peaked in late May but new cases are still surfacing.

''A travel advisory for all inbound and outbound passengers to Yap remains in effect. It asks that individuals visiting Yap avoid mosquito bites,'' a Yap government statement said.

Zika was first identified in 1947 in rhesus monkey serum in Uganda and it caused a small outbreak in 1978 in Indonesia.

REUTERS AM BD1617