The danger of mosquito-borne Zika infection for pregnant American women became more imminent last month, with two neighborhoods in the Miami area reporting cases of locally acquired infection.
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Most people with Zika don’t have symptoms, but Salama said enhanced surveillance by World Health Organization of the Olympic delegations show no large-scale transmission of Zika, confirming the earlier assessments of World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the Olympics posed no significant additional risk of spreading Zika.
Indonesian Health Ministry spokesman Oscar Primadi said Thursday that health officials are recommending that the Foreign Ministry issue an advisory against nonessential travel to Singapore, particularly for pregnant women.
Subramaniam said the virus was believed to be imported from Singapore because the woman started experiencing symptoms on the same day as her daughter.
Singapore health authorities said on Saturday that 26 new cases of locally transmitted Zika virus in Singapore has been confirmed, bringing the total number of cases to 215.
Many countries across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region are vulnerable to Zika virus.
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. Thankfully, my supervisors have spared me from having to visit any of the affected areas but there was a bit of a scare on Wednesday night when a colleague had a fever and was sent to Tan Tock Seng Hospital to be tested for Zika.
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. Brazil has confirmed more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly in the past year.
The pace at which the infection numbers have risen in Singapore highlights how fast Zika can spread but equally, it also shows the government’s ability to detect the virus. Zika can prove especially risky for pregnant women and their fetuses.
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Even if Singapore looks tiny and manageable, we still should pay heed and be as prepared as possible for Zika infections and transmissions across our vast archipelago. The USA, Australia, Taiwan and South Korea have urged pregnant women against travelling to Singapore.
