Havana, March 10 (RHC)-- Cuba has confirmed the fourth imported case of Zika virus in the country. The patient is a 30 year-old engineer, who returned to the country last March 5th from Venezuela, the Ministry of Public Health has reported.

According to a news note in today's edition of Granma newspaper, the patient was admitted at the Havana-based "Pedro Kouri" Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK), as part of the epidemiological and vector control actions established for such cases.

On March 6th, one day after the patient's arrival in Cuba, doctors at IPK conducted the real-time PCR test, which turned out “positive” to Zika virus. The ministry report adds that the patient remains hospitalized in "good general health condition with only a mild rash".

Cuba is currently immersed in a 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.