THE Department of Health (DOH) is strongly urging Filipinos in Singapore to be vigilant against the threat of Zika virus after more than 40 cases have been reported over the weekend. The most numerous and severe cases have been seen in Brazil where the link between Zika and microcephaly was first established.
Advertisement
The Singapore government, through its Ministry of Health (MOH), has recently confirmed 41 Zika virus cases.
Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) statement cited in a report from CNN revealed that 15 more patients who were being monitored for Zika virus has been confirmed in addition to Monday’s latest count of 41.
All the cases were in or near the Aljunied area in the southeast of the city-state, and most were foreign workers from a nearby construction site owned by GuocoLand, where testing for the virus is now complete, the health ministry said in a statement.
The virus has been detected in several Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Philippines, according to the World Health Organization.
“Every country in this region has Zika transmission cases”, said Prasert Thongcharoen, an adviser to the DDC. But pregnant women who are infected risk the child suffering from microcephaly – brain damage and an abnormally small head. “Spraying will reduce transmission, but it may not eliminate the virus”, he said.
[Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images] Although she was the first to catch the microcephaly-causing virus without travelling overseas, hers was not the first case of Zika virus in Singapore.
Symptoms include fever, skin rash, red eyes, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headaches.
Pregnant women in the identified area can contact their medical provider or their local county health department to be tested and receive a Zika prevention kit, officials say.
“As the World Health Organization [WHO] declares the current spread of the Zika virus a public health emergency of worldwide concern, the Philippine government, through the Department of Health, has advised its citizens to remember and use “4S” against Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases”, the embassy said.
Employers must take immediate action to prevent breeding of mosquitoes in the workplace and surrounding areas.
It is also one of Asia’s cleanest cities but has a chronic problem with dengue fever, which is spread by the same Aedes mosquito that carries the Zika virus.
To date, there’s been no local transmission of Zika in Denton County, and people infected with Zika all were diagnosed after traveling.
Workers wearing fumigation masks traveled methodically through high-rise public housing estates in seven separate areas of the island, inspecting plant pots closely as they sprayed insecticide via thermal fogging machines.
The construction site is required to address these conditions before the SWO can be lifted and to increase preventive measures to stop recurrence of mosquito breeding.
Advertisement
Singapore said that as of August 28, the National Environment Agency had inspected about 3,600 out of an estimated 6,000 premises in the Aljunied Crescent/Sims Drive cluster to check for mosquito breeding, and conducted ground checks in the vicinity.
