People in far northern Queensland are being advised to take precautions after a Gordonvale resident returned from overseas with the Zika virus. 

The Queensland Dengue Action Response Team (DART) spent the weekend in the area spraying for mosquitoes and urging residents to take precautions.  Even though the female patient had been traveling in Thailand and Bali, health officials are wary of Zika because of the problems it is causing in Brazil and South America.  Thousands of babies have been born with microcephaly after their mothers were infected with Zika.

"I urge all Gordonvale residents to cooperate with the usual control activities including spraying inside and around their homes," Tropical Public Health Services director Dr. Richard Gair said.  "DART is working in the suburb, and will continue the response over the next few days until the required area has been treated," he added.

People in the north shouldn't worry too much about person-to-person infection, because Zika is spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito: 

"It's not people they come in contact with, it's the fact that they infect mosquitoes and those mosquitoes then infect other people," said Dr. Gair.  "The sooner we find out about a case, the better chance we have of controlling any transmission because the mosquitoes don't actually become infectious until about 10 days after they've bitten someone with the infection."