Vietnam has confirmed its first two cases of the Zika virus.

The country's health ministry said that two women - a 64-year-old woman in the beach city of Nha Trang and another woman, 33, in Ho Chi Minh City - had been confirmed as having been infected with the virus, the first reported cases in the South East Asian country.

The two patients are in a stable condition and no further infections among their relatives and neighbours have been found, the ministry said.

Zika, which is carried by mosquitoes that transmit the virus to humans, is suspected of causing birth defects when it infects pregnant women.