On Saturday, the ministry disclosed that a 47-year-old Malaysian woman living in Block 102 on Aljunied Crescent had become the first to contract the disease locally.
Advertisement
All the cases were in or near the Aljunied area in the southeast of the city-state, and most were foreign workers from a nearby construction site owned by GuocoLand, where testing for the virus is now complete, the health ministry said in a statement.
Thirty-seven cases of Zika in Singapore stem from one construction site – the Sims Urban Oasis condominium at 60 Sims Drive.
36 of these cases were foreigners working at a construction site in the Aljunied neighbourhood in the south-east of the island.
Ubial said those who are manifesting symptoms like fever, cough, colds and had history of travel to Zika-affected countries are being tested. That site has been ordered to halt work, and workers’ dormitories are being inspected.
“We expect to identify more positive cases”.
TJ Medical and Surgery clinic at Blk 48 is located just across the street of Sims Drive Medical Clinic where the first case of locally transmitted Zika infection in Singapore was found.
Zika is caused by the bites of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Health authorities warned earlier this year that Singapore could see a record 30,000 cases of dengue fever this year.
Since they were not known to have traveled to Zika-affected areas recently, MOH said local transmission of the virus appears to have taken place.
The ministry said in a statement that it could not “rule out further community transmission, since more of those tested positive also live or work in other parts of Singapore”.
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. People who live there are anxious.
The virus has been detected in several Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Philippines, according to the World Health Organization.
Zika virus is risky for all of us, but it is a bigger threat for pregnant women.
Microcephaly is a congenital condition in which the head size is much smaller than usual for a baby of the same age, race and sex.
UK, Australia, Taiwan and South Korea have issued warnings about the recent Zika outbreak in Singapore.
Advertisement
On its website, the United Kingdom government’s foreign travel advice for travelling to Singapore was to advise women who are pregnant or planning to conceive to discuss their travel plans with their doctors. “This is not a life-threatening thing like SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome]”. And so far, these cases in Singapore might be the biggest inroads the virus has made in Asia.
