In an alarming devlopment, that would certainly cause jitters in most parts of South-East Asia, Zika virus has hit Singapore, one of the most economically stable nations in the region. According to latest reports, the majority of the people who tested positive for the virus are foreigners who are employed in the city state's booming construction industry.
According to a report on NBC News, "All but seven of those infected had fully recovered, the Health Ministry and the National Environment Agency said in a statement on Sunday. The other seven remain in hospital. On Saturday, authorities confirmed a 47-year-old Malaysian woman living in southeastern Singapore as the city-state's first case of a local transmission of the virus. Zika, carried by some mosquitoes, was detected in Brazil last year and has since spread across the Americas. The virus poses a risk to pregnant women because it can cause severe birth defects. It has been linked in Brazil to more than 1,600 cases of microcephaly, where babies are born with small heads."
The report went on to add, "Singaporean authorities said they tested 124 people, primarily foreign construction workers employed on a site in the same part of Singapore. That site has been ordered to halt work, and workers' dormitories are being inspected. Seventy-eight people tested negative and five cases were pending. Thirty-four patients had fully recovered.Four Singaporean men had developed symptoms of the virus in the past week and were hospitalized on Saturday. It was not clear where the foreign workers were from or when their cases were detected. Singapore hosts a large contingent of workers from the Asian subcontinent."
The World Health Organisation released a statement on Sunday in relation to the latest development and in the statement, they stated, "It is important for countries to remain vigilant through surveillance for cases, to continue vector control, to inform people about Zika and how they can protect themselves, and to have the health system ready to supply the services needed to prevent and manage Zika and its consequences,"
