Although Zika was first identified in 1947, the virus wasn’t considered a major health threat until a major outbreak in Brazil a year ago revealed that Zika can lead to severe birth defects when pregnant women are infected.
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Two more Indians have been infected with Zika virus in Singapore, taking the total number of Indian nationals tested positive for the disease in the city-state to 15, health officials said today.
Singapore was recently gripped by the Zika virus scourge with at least 151 locally transmitted cases.
It causes only mild symptoms for most people such as fever and a rash, but infected pregnant women can give birth to babies with microcephaly, a deformation marked by abnormally small brains and heads.
The virus has also been linked to a rare nervous system disorder, Guillain-Barre syndrome. Zika is mostly spread by a specific species of tropical mosquito, but it can also be spread by sex and through blood transfusions.
WHO meanwhile said Friday that Zika is still a public health emergency, reiterating its February position.
Zika can cause serious birth defects when pregnant women are infected, a link discovered previous year with the virus’s arrival in Brazil, where its impact has been greatest so far.
The committee warned the Zika virus is continuing to spread geographically.
The Health Ministry has detected the first locally-transmitted case of Zika virus in the country in Sabah yesterday.
The other two cases have no known links to any existing cluster but the authorities did not specify where these cases were located from. The five are what we call imported cases. More than 55 million people pass through the airport each year and tourism arrivals topped 8 million in the first half of this year.
World Health Organization said no cases were reported in people who returned back to their own countries following the Games.
Heymann said Singapore was expected to complete genetic sequencing of the virus by next week, which would show which strain was causing the outbreak there.
As the outbreak spreads, many of Singapore’s five million people are covering up and staying indoors to avoid mosquitoes as health experts warn that virus in the tropical city-state would be hard to contain.
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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.
