Dear Editor,
The emerging of infectious disease usually becomes the global public health threaten and a big concern in medicine. There are many diseases that become new emerging diseases in new settings. The migration of disease due to the good international transportation system is an important problem in infectious medicine in the present day. The practitioner has to update the knowledge and closely follow up the changing situation. At present, the interesting situation is the emerging arboviral infection. In 2016, Zika virus infection becomes the global issue (1). The extension of the problematic area from tropical America to tropical Asia becomes the great concern (2). Indeed, not only Zika virus infection but also other infections have to be focused in disease surveillance. Recently, there is an interesting incidence, the first emerging yellow fever in China (3, 4). This is the first imported case from an endemic area to Asia and this is an alarm for the necessity to strictly control the disease. The first case in China is an imported case by a traveler who travelled from the endemic area to China and carried the disease with him (3, 4). Here, the author would like to bring attention to Southeast Asia. Comparing to China, Southeast Asia is an actual tropical area resembling the tropical South America and Africa where yellow fever is endemic. Nevertheless, there is still no problem of yellow fever in Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the mosquito vector exists in Southeast Asia and it is confirmed for the possibility of disease transmission (5). There are also many international flights connecting Southeast Asia to the endemic area at present. Luckily, there is still no case report of yellow fever in Southeast Asia (6). Nevertheless, as already noted, there are many international routes between Southeast Asia and the endemic area and if the possibility of a leakage in disease control process can be expected. The strict regulation of yellow fever vaccination is needed but it is usually overlooked (7). If the present disease control process has a problem, the emerging yellow fever might occur in Southeast Asia and will become a difficult problem for disease control.
References
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1.
Fajardo A, Cristina J, Moreno P. Emergence and Spreading Potential of Zika Virus. Front Microbiol. 2016;7:1667. [PubMed ID: 27812357]. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01667.
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2.
Wiwanitkit V. The current status of Zika virus in Southeast Asia. Epidemiol Health. 2016;38. e2016026. [PubMed ID: 27336445]. https://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2016026.
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3.
Chen Z, Liu L, Lv Y, Zhang W, Li J, Zhang Y, et al. A fatal yellow fever virus infection in China: description and lessons. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2016;5(7). e69. [PubMed ID: 27406389]. https://doi.org/10.1038/emi.2016.89.
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4.
Dou XF, Zheng Y, Lyu YN, Li J, Li XY, Chen LJ, et al. [The first confirmed imported case of yellow fever in China]. Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi. 2016;37(6):788-90. [PubMed ID: 27346103]. https://doi.org/10.3760/cma.j.issn.0254-6450.2016.06.009.
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5.
Gillett JD, Ross RW. The Laboratory Transmission of Yellow Fever byAëdes (Stegomyia) Aegypti(Linnaeus) from Malaya. Ann Trop Med Parasitol. 2016;49(1):63-5. https://doi.org/10.1080/00034983.1955.11685652.
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6.
Cathey JT, Marr JS. Yellow fever, Asia and the East African slave trade. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 2014;108(5):252-7. [PubMed ID: 24743951]. https://doi.org/10.1093/trstmh/tru043.
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7.
Sturchler MP, Steffen R. [Vaccinations for overseas travelers--new evidence and recommendations]. Ther Umsch. 2001;58(6):362-6. [PubMed ID: 11441696]. https://doi.org/10.1024/0040-5930.58.6.362.