Zika is surprising researchers at every turn and WHO’s decision is meant to protect pregnant women as much as possible.
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Eng Eong Ooi, the deputy director of the Emerging Infectious Disease program at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, said Asian countries are vulnerable to the Zika virus and other similar outbreaks due to their high population count and humid climates.
MOH announced that the National Public Health Laboratory and A*STAR’s Bioinformatics Institute has completed the sequencing analysis of the Zika virus found in two patients from the Aljunied Crescent/ Sims Drive cluster.
A blood test and a scan, he explained, were enough to determine if “anything had gone wrong” with the baby. At least 80% of people infected with Zika do not show symptoms, and may never know they have the disease and could be contagious.
The second zika case involved a 61-year-old man from Likas, Sabah.
“As we are in the traditional peak dengue season, we anticipate an upward trend in the number of dengue cases in the coming months”, the agency said on its website.
Subramaniam also clarified that there was no South African strain.
So far Zika has spread across the globe following a major outbreak in Brazil with more than 150 British travellers being infected this year. Ooi said Asia’s megacities contain five to 10 million people, and Aedes mosquitoes thrive in these densely-packed urban areas.
He said dengue was still found to be a lot more problematic to contain than the Zika virus.
The Federal Territories” “mufti’ religious leader declared on his official website that women that are infected with the virus are allowed to have an abortion.
A NEW debate is raging on in Muslim-dominated Malaysia over the legality of abortion in cases where pregnant mothers are infected with the Zika virus, which puts the unborn baby in danger of being born with microcephaly.
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Common symptoms of a Zika infection include rash, fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, and on occasion red eyes that appear similar to conjunctivitis.
