Havana, March 9 (RHC)-- Cuba has confirmed the third imported case of Zika virus in the country. The patient is a 43-year-old health technician who returned to the country on March 1st from a cooperation mission in the Venezuelan State of Merida, the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) has reported.

It also indicates that the same day he arrived in Cuba, the patient began to show some symptoms of the disease, mainly headache and a rash in the chest region, for which he was admitted to the "Amalia Simoni" hospital in Camagüey province, where doctors immediately conducted the real-time PCR test and sent it to Havana's "Pedro Kouri" Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK).

The report notes that from the very beginning "all epidemiological and vector control actions established for such cases were undertaken."

On Monday, March 7th, the IPK reported that the test result on the patient was "positive" to Zika virus. The health ministry also stated that the patient remains hospitalized in "good general health condition with only a mild rash".

Cuba is currently immersed in an all out national sanitation and surveillance campaign, involving state institutions, grassroots organizations, the Armed Forces and  the National Revolutionary Police.  The aim is to eliminate aedes mosquitoes –the main vector of zika, dengue and chikungunya viruses.