The woman and her husband had returned to Malaysia on August 21 after visiting their daughter in Singapore on August 19. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, “According to our mission in Singapore 13 Indian nationals have tested positive for Zika in Singapore”.
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“As per our Embassy in Singapore, 13 Indian nationals have tested positive for Zika in that country”, he said.
The virus, which is spread mainly through the aedes aegypti species of mosquito, is suspected to cause Zika fever, a disease that’s characterized by symptoms of fever, eye redness, achy joints, and a skin rash.
Pregnant women are considered to be at greatest risk because the virus can cause severe birth defects, including microcephaly, which is marked by small head size and underdeveloped brains.
As the number of Zika virus related cases rose to 115, Singapore confirmed its first case of a pregnant woman testing positive for the same.
Late on Wednesday evening, Singapore’s health ministry and the National Environment Agency (NEA) in a briefing to the press confirmed that a pregnant woman is among the patients.
Government regulations already require employers and dormitory operators to take efforts to avoid mosquito breeding habitats as part of a long-standing battle with dengue, another mosquito-borne virus, but rights groups say they are concerned that these rules are not always followed.
The CDC has sent about $35 million to Florida – which has several dozen cases of locally transmitted Zika infections – and much of that has been spent, Frieden said.
The deadly Zika virus has reached too close to India for comfort.
Indonesia’s health ministry has assigned health officials to stand guard at eight Riau Islands sea ports that serve routes to Singapore as an anticipatory measure to limit the spread of the virus, The Jakarta Post reports.
Indonesia has not yet reported any local Zika infections but an Indonesian woman in Singapore is among those infected there.
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on mosquito-borne diseases.
