Singapore reports more Zika cases
Print Edition
SINGAPORE clinics reported more Zika infections yesterday, bringing the total of suspected cases to 50. Meanwhile, anti-mosquito measures were underway.
Inspectors from the National Environment Agency checking for mosquito-breeding sites visited homes in the eastern Aljunied Crescent district where 41 cases — mostly foreign workers at a condominium construction project — have been confirmed.
Nearly all have recovered but nine more suspected cases of Zika virus infection — both citizens and foreign workers — were reported by two community clinics yesterday, local media said.
These cases were also in Aljunied.
“It’s quite frightening because I thought Zika is something happening on the other side of the world. But now it’s right here in my neighborhood,” customer service manager Josephine Kwan, who lives in the affected suburb, told reporters.
Zika causes only mild symptoms for most people, such as fever and a rash, and has been detected in 58 countries, particularly in Brazil.
In pregnant women, however, it can cause microcephaly, a deformation in which babies are born with abnormally small brains and heads.
Singapore is a densely populated tropical island with frequent rain. Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water that collects in construction sites, open space and homes.
It is one of Asia’s cleanest cities and enjoys a high standard of health care, but has a chronic problem with dengue fever, which is spread by the same Aedes mosquito that carries the Zika virus.
Singapore’s first reported case of Zika in May involved a man who had visited Sao Paulo in Brazil earlier in the year.
But all the latest cases involved local transmission.
The Straits Times newspaper quoted local doctor Tan Thai Keng, whose surgery reported four of the latest cases, as saying more women were visiting the clinic as news of the outbreak spread.
They included a pregnant 32-year-old.
“She wanted to find out whether she had the virus in her blood or not. So we took her blood here and sent it to the lab at Tan Tock Seng,” he said, referring to the main national hospital for communicable diseases.
Neighboring countries and regions are taking steps to prevent the spread of the disease from Singapore.
Taiwan issued a travel advisory for Singapore, urging travelers to watch out for mosquito bites and cautioning pregnant women and those planning to conceive to postpone trips to all areas with Zika cases.
Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines have also said health officers will closely monitor arrivals from Singapore, which was visited by 15 million people last year.
In the city-state inspectors armed with insecticide spray cans visited high-rise public housing flats to check toilets and other areas for stagnant water yesterday.
Owners of homes found with such sites can be fined up to SGD$5,000 (US$3,700).
Contractors in protective gear were yesterday pumping a mosquito-killing mist over large areas of the suburb.
Of the 41 Zika cases confirmed on Sunday, 36 were foreigners at the condominium site.
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