Taiwan and Hainan at Risk of Zika Spread, Scientist Warns

Sinosphere

By KEITH BRADSHER MARCH 9, 2016

An Aedes aegypti mosquito seen through a microscope at the Fiocruz Institute in Recife, Brazil. Credit Felipe Dana/Associated Press

HONG KONG — Taiwan and the southern Chinese island province of Hainan are at greater risk than anywhere in mainland China of having locally transmitted cases of the fast-spreading Zika virus, according to a prominent virologist.

Taiwan and Hainan both have populations of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is believed to be the main carrier of Zika. The virus has infected 1.5 million people in Brazil alone in recent months, while also spreading throughout most of South America, Central America and the Caribbean and into Mexico, said Dr. Peter Piot, the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and co-discoverer of the Ebola virus. Read more.