[HEALTH WATCH] Dreaded Zika Virus Hit Singapore, 41 Cases Confirmed
The first case in Singapore was confirmed on Saturday with 41 confirmed cases. Those infected include 36 foreign construction workers employed at a site near Aljunied in the southeast of the island, the health ministry and the National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a joint statement.
On Saturday, authorities had confirmed Singapore ’s first case of a local transmission of the virus, to a 47-year-old Malaysian woman, also from the Aljunied area.
The authorities said they have tested 124 people, primarily construction workers. Seventy-eight tested negative and five cases were pending. Thirty-four patients have fully recovered.
It was not immediately clear where the foreign workers were from, but Singapore hosts a large contingent of workers from the Asian sub-continent.
Dozens of NEA staff cleaned drains and sprayed insecticide in the mainly residential area early on Sunday, and volunteers and contractors shared leaflets and insect repellent.
The NEA workers had accessed more than 1,800 premises of a total of 6,000 in the area to check for mosquito breeding.
Zika was detected in Brazil last year and has since spread across the Americas. The virus poses a risk to pregnant women as it can be seen cause severe birth defects. It has been linked to more than 1,600 cases of microcephaly in Brazil.
The Singapore government said there were “ongoing local transmission” cases in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Other countries in the region to have detected the Zika virus since 2013 include Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives and the Philippines, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) .
Malaysia has stepped up surveillance at main transit points with Singapore.Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said leaflets on Zika prevention were being handed out and paramedics were at entry points to handle visitors with potential symptoms.
As of this month, Malaysia said it has screened more than 2million visitors at air, sea and land entrances, and found no Zika infections.
In Thailand, where close to 100 cases of Zika have been recorded across 10 provinces this year, the Department of Disease Control (DDC) was screening all athletes returning from the Olympic Games in Brazil, but was not otherwise changing its prevention measures.
U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems.
The WHO has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.
