With five confirmed cases of the Zika Virus reported by the Ministry of Health over in the Turks and Caicos Islands, medical officials in The Bahamas have said this is no cause for alarm.

It was revealed yesterday in a press briefing at the Ministry of Health, that although there were 56 persons that displayed symptoms of Zika none of these people had actually contracted the virus.

The government’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Glen Beneby has assured that he and his team will continue to monitor the disease to prevent any future cases.

“In The Bahamas testing for suspected cases began in January 2016, as of July 9th 2016 there have been 56 cases of suspected Zika Virus.

“All of whom have had samples sent to the reference laboratory for testing, as of today all results came back negative in regards to the Zika virus. We continue to monitor especially in relationship to pregnancy and any abnormalities relating to pregnancy.

“Heightened surveillance continues with the Department of Public Health in collaboration with Department of Environmental Health Services conducting the required public health and environmental follow up in each of the suspected cases,” Dr. Beneby said.

With the host country for this year’s Summer Olympics being a breeding ground for this disease, Director of Public Health Dr. Pearl McMillan said officials are doing all they can to properly educate and supervise the athletes.

“What we are putting together is a package that will include things that they need to do not only in reference to Zika, but other public health concerns.

“Ideally, we would like them to have certain immunizations, but of course while they’re there we’re saying to them Zika is very current and actually ongoing so they need to take preventative measures.

“We’re also saying upon your return let us know your back, so that we can do certain monitoring.

“So you can advise on whether you have any symptoms or not. In regards to sexual behaviour we advise that you abstain and or use condoms because you don’t want to get pregnant in a Zika infected place,” Dr. McMillan said.

Consultant for the Ministry of Health Dr. Percival McNeil urged females especially to stay informed about the virus, with pregnant women making up a large percentage of those afflicted.

“One of the concerns about Zika is that 80 percent of the cases show no symptoms.

“So that it means even though you don’t have symptoms you have to take the same precautions, and the information that is coming out on Zika is changing just about every week.

“So we will continue informing and updating the public on what to do, universally it’s the prevention.

“The latest thing is sexual transmission; we have concerns about the population of young women in particular who do not want to get pregnant and are not sure what they want to do.

“So they need to seek out their health care providers and get the appropriate information and ensure they get proper healthcare,” Dr. McNeil said.

Pre-emptive measures such as source reduction and fogging are also being done to help control the mosquito population.