MOH said that 658 Zika tests were done between Sept 7 and Sept 17.
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The doctors of the pregnant women are following up closely with them to provide counselling and support, the report said. 197 of these tests were done for pregnant and/or symptomatic individuals.
Of those, 28 people were infected via sexual contact. These symptoms of Zika normally last for two to seven days.
Twenty babies in the US have been born with Zika-related birth defects and 749 pregnant women have lab evidence of possible Zika infection as of September 15, according to the CDC’s most recent update.
Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that can be passed from a pregnant woman to her unborn baby.
Microcephaly is a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems.
“I would not be surprised if we started having locally acquired cases within the coming months because everywhere that this mosquito lives, there will be cases and every country in the Western hemisphere now has the Zika virus”, said Castillo.
The ministry itself is keeping close tabs on the pregnant women, who have been notified that they have the Zika virus infection.
Microcephaly has been tracked by Singapore’s national birth defects registry since January 1993, it said.
Apart from MOH, the National Environment Agency (NEA) is also working for reducing the Zika crisis in Singapore.
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The ministry has said recently that investigations by its laboratory and a local scientific research institute show that the virus belongs to the Asian lineage and likely evolved from the strain that has been circulating in Southeast Asia since the 1960s.
