“Over time, we expect Zika cases to emerge from more areas”.
Advertisement
Indonesia is screening travellers from neighbouring Singapore for the mosquito-borne Zika virus as the city-state reports a growing number of infections and its first case of a pregnant woman testing positive.
Zika has mild effects on most people, but can be fatal for unborn children.
As she had not travelled to Zika-affected areas recently, she was likely to have been infected in Singapore.
On Saturday, local authorities had confirmed the first locally-transmitted case of Zika virus to be a 47-year-old Malaysian woman.
“We are carrying out control measures against aedes mosquitoes near the woman’s home to prevent the spread of the virus”, he told a news conference.
Six Bangladeshis were tested positive with Zika virus in Singapore, the Bangladesh High Commission in Singapore said on Thursday.
A Sri Lankan foreign ministry official said it had not been informed of any infections, and the Chinese foreign ministry said in Beijing it had no information about any of its nationals in Singapore having Zika.
Health officials are seeking an official warning against non-essential travel as the number infected in the city state reaches 115, now including a pregnant woman.
The Ministry of Health and National Environment Agency said the pregnant woman was living in the virus-hit housing and industrial area of Sims Drive/Aljunied Crescent in the southeast of the island.
Zika is transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti and causes symptoms similar to dengue. “With the presence of Zika in our region and the volume of travel by Singaporeans as well as tourists, it is inevitable there will be imported cases of Zika into Singapore”, the ministry’s statement was cited by Reuters as saying last week.
The mother developed symptoms of Zika illness – rash, fever, headache, swollen joints – in week 26 of her pregnancy.
Advertisement
Malaysia has asked people visiting Singapore to use repellent and cover up to avoid mosquito bites. Brazil registered 91,387 likely cases of the Zika virus from February until April 2.
