On Thursday, Malaysia’s Health Ministry said a 58-year-old woman who traveled to Singapore had become that country’s first Zika case.
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The ministry had yet to receive information on whether the woman was pregnant, which could be risky as the disease can cause microcephaly, a birth defect in which babies are born with small heads.
The woman’s husband and family members who lived in the same house with her, have yet to show any symptoms of Zika infection, said the minister, but the husband also went to Singapore during the same period to visit their daughter. It is spread by daytime-active Aedes mosquitoes, such as A. aegypti and A. albopictus.
The Aedes mosquito-borne Zika, which has been detected in 67 countries and territories including hardest-hit Brazil, causes only mild symptoms for most people, such as fever and a rash.
China’s embassy in Singapore have been informed of 21 Chinese nationals having tested positive for the virus while 13 Indian nationals were also confirmed Zika cases, according to a source from the Indian High Commission in Singapore. It has been linked to microcephaly – a severe birth defect in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains.
Many people infected with zika virus do not get sick.
The patient, who lives in Bandar Botani, visited her daughter in Singapore on Aug 19 and returned to Malaysia on Aug 21.
Singapore has disclosed that five Malaysians, residing and working in the city state, have been confirmed infected with Zika virus.
It was reported yesterday that the U.S., Australia, Taiwan and South Korea have issued similar travel warnings to pregnant women. “With the presence of Zika in our region and the volume of travel by Singaporeans as well as tourists, it is inevitable there will be imported cases of Zika into Singapore”, the ministry’s statement was cited by Reuters as saying last week.
Government officials in Indonesia have said at least one citizen living in Singapore has tested positive for Zika.
Since Singapore reported its first locally transmitted Zika infection on Saturday, confirmed cases have soared as authorities ramped up testing.
A urine Polymerase Chain Reaction test conducted on the patient at the Sungai Buloh Hospital on Aug 30, was positive for the Zika virus, he said.
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A resident leaves a community garden as a worker fogs the area at a new Zika cluster area in Singapore September 1, 2016.
