As the authorities confirmed 24 more new Zika cases today, the worst of it has surfaced — a pregnant woman living in the Aljunied Crescent/Sims Drive area counts as one of the infected.
The total number of locally-transmitted cases of Zika now stands at 115; an amount that has made progressive increments ever since the first one was announced on Aug 27.
In even more bad news, the Ministry of Health and National Environment Agency has confirmed a new potential cluster at Bedok North Avenue 3. Of the 24 new cases, 22 are from the existing Zika hotspot of Aljunied Crescent/Sims Drive. The two other infected reside at Joo Seng Road and Punggol Way.
NEA assured that they’d begin mosquito control operations at Bedok North Avenue 3 soon.
As for the pregnant woman who was infected, she displayed mild symptoms of the virus and has been receiving treatment at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. A household member of hers had earlier been diagnosed as positive for the Zika virus.
The Zika virus poses a higher risk to pregnant women, who can potentially pass the virus to their unborn child. If infected during pregnancy, the virus could cause severe neurological defects in babies including eye problems, hearing loss and impaired growth. Zika can also cause microcephaly — a neurological condition where babies are born with small heads, and sometimes small brains.
In previous cases however, many women infected during the outbreak have delivered apparently healthy babies, according to the United States’ Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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