Earlier today, China’s Foreign Ministry reported that 23 of the 115 infected with the Zika virus in Singapore were Chinese foreign nationals.
According to a statement from the foreign ministry, none of those infected faced serious health problems and most had already recovered. The majority of Chinese nationals who tested positive are believed to be construction workers living in Singapore.
A total of 57 foreign nationals have contracted the virus in Singapore so far, including 10 from Bangladesh, 15 from India, six from Malaysia, one from Indonesia, one from Myanmar and one from Taiwan.
Only one of the 115 cases is a pregnant woman (a citizen of Singapore), whose health and baby’s development are being monitored closely by a doctor.
For most, the Zika virus causes mild symptoms, including a rash, conjunctivitis (red eyes), slight fever and joint pain. An estimated 80 percent of those infected report no symptoms at all. However, Zika infection during pregnancy has been shown to cause serious birth defects including microcephaly, impaired growth and Guillain-Barré syndrome – an uncommon sickness of the nervous system.
“Over time, we expect Zika cases to emerge from more areas,” said Singapore Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong in a statement this week. “We must work and plan on the basis that there is Zika transmission in other parts of Singapore.”
The government there is taking initiatives to combat the spread of viruses like Zika and dengue, which are both transmitted by the Aedes mosquito.
According to Xi Zhiyong – a scientist based in Guangdong, China who is fighting Zika with bioengineered mosquitoes – Singapore will begin implementing his technology by the end of this year.
Xi’s scheme (which is backed by the IAEA) works by implanting a naturally occurring bacteria, called Wolbachia, into the male mosquitoes of a species he is attempting to control or eliminate. Wolbachia bacteria both inhibit viruses like dengue and Zika and disrupt reproduction, such that when Xi releases the altered male mosquitoes back into the wild to mate, none of the resulting eggs hatch.
So far, Xi’s project has seen incredible results: in May, his team suppressed 99 percent of the mosquito population on an island in South China. (See our recent interview with Xi, who spoke at the TEDxXiguan conference in Guangzhou this August.)
Following the latest outbreak, a number of countries have warned pregnant women not to travel to Singapore, including the United States, Australia, South Korea and Indonesia.
[Cover image via fortune.com]
READ MORE: Beijing Reports Second Imported Case of Zika Virus
0 User Comments