Almost all have recovered but nine more suspected cases of Zika virus infection – both citizens and foreign workers – were reported by two community clinics yesterday, local media said.
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Singapore confirmed 15 more cases of locally-transmitted infections with the Zika virus late on Monday, having announced 41 over the weekend, the Straits Times newspaper reported, citing the health ministry.
Since then, the total number of locally infected cases has risen to 56, with authorities warning of more cases likely to be uncovered in the coming days.
The majority of those infected with Zika in Singapore were foreign workers, but the government has not disclosed their nationalities.
MOH said it also worked with the contractors at a separate construction site at Sims Drive to screen the workers there who were recently reported by a general practitioner to have symptoms of fever, rash and conjunctivitis. Because of patient privacy rights under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), no additional identifying information on either Mobile County case will be made available to the public.
New research from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston has shown that female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes can pass the Zika virus to their eggs and offspring.
On Sunday, the authorities said that none of those infected, including four Singaporeans from the same neighborhood, had traveled overseas recently to areas affected by the Zika virus.
Thirteen of the new cases were people who lived or worked in the same area where the virus was first detected. People who live there are anxious.
Pregnant women and their partners are urged not to travel to some four dozen countries – a lot of them in the Caribbean and Latin America – where Zika virus is now active.
The disease is also being linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome and microcephaly, a condition of abnormal smallness of the head among babies of infected mothers.
Taiwan on August 29 issued a travel advisory for Singapore, urging travellers to watch out for mosquito bites and cautioning pregnant women and those planning to conceive to postpone trips to all areas with Zika cases.
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However, people can contract the virus if they travel to a place with Zika or if they have sex with someone who has zika. “All travelers should protect themselves from mosquito bite”, Australia’s foreign affairs and trade department said.
