The Health Ministry and the National Environment Agency in Singapore confirmed 41 incidences of locally transmitted Zika virus on Sunday and cases are expected to increase in future.
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On Aug. 28, the local government issued an order to halt all work being done in the GuocoLand-owned construction site, where most of the infected foreign workers are staying.
Almost all have recovered but nine more suspected cases of Zika virus infection – both citizens and foreign workers -were reported today by two community clinics, local media said.
The city-state’s first case of the virus to be locally transmitted was a 47-year-old Malaysian woman living near a construction site in southeastern Singapore.
Singapore on Monday confirmed more Zika infections, bringing the total number of cases past 50 as mosquito-fighting teams saturated the scene of the outbreak amid growing public alarm.
On Aug 25, the MOH had gone to the contractor of a nearby construction site for records of workers with fever.
More than 200 officers have been sent out to inspect the area where the cluster has broken out, conducting misting and fogging to kill adult mosquitoes.
Unlike the first case of Zika to emerge in Singapore in May, these 41 patients had not travelled to Zika-infected areas recently so they were likely to have been infected in Singapore.
As of now there is no vaccine for the virus and there is no specific medication too that can treat it.
Following the confirmation of the first case announced Saturday, authorities had looked back on previous cases with similar symptoms, and carried out tests to determine if they were Zika.
The five, who include foreign workers, were undergoing further tests at Singapore’s Communicable Diseases Centre.
The advisories warn expectant mothers and women who are planning to get pregnant to exercise all precautionary measures to avoid contracting the Zika virus when visiting Singapore.
Singapore said there were “ongoing local transmission” cases in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The remaining four cases are still being investigated, MOH and NEA said.
In pregnant women, however, it can cause microcephaly, a deformation in which babies are born with abnormally small brains and heads.
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Doctors believe as much as 80 percent of those infected with Zika never develop symptoms, while those who have symptoms suffer from fevers, joint pain and rashes.
