Anxiety about epidemic emerges after first case of Zika virus in country

Anxiety about a Zika epidemic emerged in South Korea on Tuesday as the first case of the mosquito-borne disease was reported in a country still reeling from the trauma of an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome last year.

A 43-year-old man who recently returned from Brazil was diagnosed with the virus after suffering fever, muscle pain and rash, according to a statement from the state-run Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

The tropical disease, which has become epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean, usually causes a mild illness. But the World Health Organization last month declared the explosive spread of Zika in the Americas to be a global emergency, due to its link to the spike in the number of babies born with abnormally small heads and the rise in a rare neurological syndrome that can cause paralysis and death.