Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) is actively testing people who live in the areas with high likelihood of local transmissions of Zika virus, as the number of people in the city state infected by Zika virus has grown up to 41 by Sunday.
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Among the 15 cases, two works at the construction site at 60 Sims Drive have recovered.
Last week, Bernama reported the Singapore Health Ministry as saying that a 47-year-old Malaysian was likely infected in Singapore since she had not travelled to any countries affected by the Zika virus. With the newly-reported cases, a total of 56 cases were confirmed here.
In response, MOH said the National Environment Agency (NEA) had already intensified its vector control operations in the infected area and also conducted outreach to residents and other stakeholders in the vicinity.
Workers wearing fumigation masks moved methodically through high-rise public housing estates, inspecting plant pots and spraying insecticide via thermal fogging machines.
Singaporean health officials announced on August 29 that the number of locally transmitted Zika cases in the city has now reached 56 with the addition of 15 new cases.
Singapore had reported a case of Zika in May, in a man who had been to Brazil, the country at the center of the global Zika outbreak.
“We want prevention on the spread of the viruses and comprehensive information about the new cases”, she noted.
The Department of Foreign Affairs sent out a travel alert on Monday, warning of the ongoing spread of the virus and telling people to adopt additional measures against mosquito bites if planning a trip to Singapore.
The Zika virus poses a risk to pregnant women because it can cause severe birth defects. But in pregnant women, it can cause microcephaly, a deformation in which babies are born with abnormally small brains and heads. Pregnant women are strongly encouraged to avoid traveling areas where mosquitoes are known to carry the virus.
It has also ordered work to stop at the construction site until conditions are improved and preventive measures stepped up. And four out of five patients do not develop any associated symptoms, which are rash, or joint and muscle pain.
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Zika looks unstoppable and prediction for locally transmitted Zika cases in different parts of the world is becoming a reality.
