“At the moment we can not go out there and test everybody or every suspected case for Zika because it is too costly”, Muhamad Subuh, director general for disease prevention and control at Indonesia’s health ministry, told Reuters.
Advertisement
The WHO lists Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam as countries with “possible endemic transmission or evidence of local mosquito-borne Zika infections in 2016”.
“It suggests that there are other infected people in the community who are potential sources of infection”, Subramaniam added.
Most of the confirmed Zika cases have been centred around the adjacent suburbs of Aljunied and Paya Lebar.
Several countries including Taiwan and Australia have warned pregnant women against travel to Singapore.
SINGAPORE – Singapore authorities on Sunday confirmed 27 more cases of locally transmitted Zika virus infection, bringing the total there to 242, shortly after a new study showed 2.6-billion people live in countries ideal for Zika to spread. The researchers then gathered data on airline ticket sales from all 689 cities with one or more airports in the region travelling to Africa or Asia-Pacific over a whole year (December 2014 to November 2015).
Microcephaly is a severe birth defect that is characterized by abnormally small heads in children born to mothers infected with the virus during pregnancy.
On Friday, the World Health Organization said the outbreak of Zika remains an global health emergency and noted that the virus is continuing to infect new countries.
Experts and officials say both countries will struggle to contain the virus because of the spread of the Aedes mosquitoes, which also carry dengue, a potentially fatal virus that Singapore and Malaysia have been battling for years.
Neighbouring Malaysia has reported at least one case of locally transmitted Zika. “And Zika is beginning to spread, continuing to cause outbreaks in many countries around the world”, said Heymann. Health Minister Subramaniam on Sunday also urged Malaysians to clean up areas that could serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
Advertisement
Malaysia, home to nearly 30 million people, has boosted its efforts to screen travelers from overseas and increased insecticide spraying to kill mosquitoes.
