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Burmese Citizen Infected With Zika Virus in Singapore

Singapore is the only country in Asia with active transmission of Zika.

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The babies were born with abnormally small heads, a condition threatening their brain development.

The Ministry of Health and National Environment Agency said in a joint statement on Saturday evening that of the 26 new cases reported on Saturday, 24 were linked to a cluster in the Aljunied district where the country’s first locally-transmitted cases were reported.

Burma’s Ministry of Health said that since the Zika epidemic began in Brazil in 2015, they have been taking precautionary measures in the country and screening passengers for fever when arriving at airports and ports.

Some health experts had criticized the organisation for not calling for the Games to be moved or postponed.

Singapore authorities say 115 people have now tested positive for the virus, including a pregnant woman and 57 foreigners living and working in the city-state.

The WHO said its prediction that the Games would not fuel the spread of the Zika virus was being proved correct.

Many of Singapore’s five million people are covering up and staying indoors as health experts warn the virus in a tropical climate is hard to contain.

With the city already battling a dengue, chikungunya and viral fever outbreak, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has issued a Zika alert in the country.

Currently, it’s winter in Rio, so mosquito numbers are on the decline-as are the number of new cases in Brazil, for which World Health Organization credits Brazilian authorities.

Zika was first identified in Uganda in 1947 and was unknown in the Americas until 2014.

He said the request was made to the MEA after the report of 13 affected Indians came to the forefront. “In addition, all individuals traveling to areas where Zika virus transmission is occurring should take steps to avoid mosquito bites”, Moreno said. In Indonesia, 197 million people risk catching Zika, while 70 million people live in high-risk zones in the Philippines and 59 million in Thailand.

On Thursday, Malaysia confirmed the first imported case of Zika in a 58-year-old woman who had visited Singapore.

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The public can prevent mosquito bites by wearing long-sleeved shirts and trousers, sleeping in mosquito bed nets and using insect repellent, according to health officials.

An Aedes aegypti mosquito is seen inside a test tube as part of a research on preventing the spread of the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases at a control and prevention center in Guadalupe neighbouring Monterrey Mexico