Zika infection during pregnancy can cause a serious birth defect called microcephaly that is a sign of incomplete brain development.
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A National Environment Agency officer informs residents as a worker fogs the corridor of a public housing estate in the vicinity where a locally transmitted Zika virus case was discovered, in Singapore August 29, 2016. “But now it’s right here in my neighborhood”, customer service manager Josephine Kwan, who lives in the affected suburb, told AFP. The construction site has to rectify the conditions before the SWO will be lifted.
Due to the factors above, it is expected that more positive cases will be identified in the coming days as the screening of close contacts continue.
Pregnant women and their partners are urged not to travel to some four dozen countries – majority in the Caribbean and Latin America – where Zika virus is now active.
It is also one of Asia’s cleanest cities, but has a chronic problem with dengue fever, which is spread by the same Aedes mosquito that carries the Zika virus.
This brings the total number of people who have been locally infected to 56 – and more are likely to be uncovered, warn the authorities.
They included a pregnant 32-year-old.
Scientists studying Zika wanted to find out whether some of the offspring from these tropical mosquitoes might carry the virus, helping to perpetuate an outbreak during dry seasons.
Ellyadi’s mother, Lela Noordin, said: “We have to take care now that this virus is around”, said Noordin.
You can play a part in reducing the risk of further spread of Zika.
Muhamad Subuh, a senior Indonesian health ministry official, said authorities are “in the process of stepping up health checks at main airports and ports, including in Batam”, the island closest to Singapore.
In the city-state, inspectors armed with insecticide spray cans on Monday visited high-rise public housing flats to check toilets and other areas for stagnant water.
Of the 41 Zika cases confirmed Sunday by the government, 36 were foreigners working at a condominium construction site.
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The latest global outbreak of the disease began in Brazil in early 2015.
