Singapore in Zika plea to pregnant women
Print Edition
SINGAPORE urged pregnant women showing symptoms of fever or rashes to get tested for the Zika virus yesterday after the number of cases in the city-state soared to 82.
The US and Britain joined Australia in advising pregnant women to avoid non-essential travel to Singapore, while a local health expert warned the infection rate would rise.
Environment agency workers stepped up efforts to eradicate mosquitoes that spread the disease, expanding a fumigation campaign centered on the “ground zero” of the outbreak, the eastern suburb of Aljunied.
As infections climbed, they blasted an industrial area at Kallang Way to destroy breeding sites fueling the outbreak.
Another nearby area — Paya Lebar Way — was also smothered with insecticide.
Five of the latest infections reported on Tuesday were of people who live or work in those two areas.
Zika, which has been detected in 58 countries, including hardest-hit Brazil, causes only mild symptoms for most people, such as fever and a rash.
But in pregnant women, it can cause microcephaly, a deformation in which babies are born with abnormally small brains and heads.
The health ministry said that “all pregnant women in Singapore with symptoms of Zika — fever and rash and other symptoms such as red eyes or joint pain” should be tested for infection.
“I’m going to the doctor tomorrow to get a check up just to make sure I don’t have Zika,” said Sulaiha Ngatiman, 30, of Aljunied, who is seven months pregnant with her fifth child.
Construction workers in the affected areas have been given mosquito-repellent patches, chewable Vitamin C tablets and removable sleeves to cover their arms. Many of those infected were construction workers at a condominium project.
Since Singapore reported its first locally transmitted Zika infection last Saturday, confirmed cases have soared as authorities ramped up testing.
Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious diseases specialist at Singapore’s Mouth Elizabeth Novena Hospital, said the number is likely to rise further.
“There are very few mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus but you must remember (that) for every one Zika case found, four more are asymptomatic.
“So now we have 82 cases, you multiply that by four, there are 328 cases lurking in the background,” he said.
Despite being one of Asia’s cleanest cities, Singapore is a densely populated tropical island with heavy rainfall. It has a chronic problem with dengue fever, which is spread by the same Aedes mosquito that carries Zika.
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