China intensified its checks on people and goods arriving from Singapore on Thursday, as an outbreak of the Zika virus in the small city-state was confirmed to have spread to at least one person in neighbouring Malaysia.
Authorities in Singapore, a leading regional financial centre and busy transit hub for people and cargo, said they had detected 151 people with the Zika virus, including a second pregnant woman, as of midday Thursday. The first locally-transmitted Zika infection was reported on Saturday. The government said earlier that half of the 115 cases reported previously were foreigners, mainly from China, India and Bangladesh, and most had already recovered. Many of them are believed to be among the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in Singapore's construction and marine industries.
Some new Zika cases have been found beyond the cluster area where the virus was initially detected. "We have been tracking Zika for a while now, and knew it was only a matter of time before it reached Singapore," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong posted on his Facebook page. "Our best defence is to eradicate mosquitoes and destroy breeding habitats, all over Singapore."
Singapore is the only Asian country with active transmission of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which in pregnant women can lead to serious birth defects. Malaysia confirmed its first case of Zika infection, in a woman who had recently visited Singapore. The United States, Australia and other countries have added Singapore to the growing list of places that pregnant women or those trying to conceive have been warned to avoid.
Malaysia Measures
The World Health Organisation (WHO), which declared Zika an international public health emergency, was holding a regular meeting of its Zika emergency committee on Thursday to review the spread of the disease. Malaysia, which has two land border crossings with Singapore, asked those going to the city-state to use mosquito repellent and to cover up to avoid bites. Tens of thousands of people travel between the two countries daily.
Indonesia has also stepped up protective measures following the Singapore outbreak, intensifying checks on arrivals from Singapore and posting paramedics at airports and border checkpoints. Zika is primarily spread by mosquitoes but can also be transmitted through unprotected sex with an infected person. A case of suspected transmission through a blood transfusion in Brazil has raised questions about other ways it may be spread.
Several companies and government agencies are working to develop vaccines against Zika. On Thursday, Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceuticals said it has joined the effort with help from US funding, and it expects to begin human testing in 2017.
Authorities in Singapore, a leading regional financial centre and busy transit hub for people and cargo, said they had detected 151 people with the Zika virus, including a second pregnant woman, as of midday Thursday. The first locally-transmitted Zika infection was reported on Saturday. The government said earlier that half of the 115 cases reported previously were foreigners, mainly from China, India and Bangladesh, and most had already recovered. Many of them are believed to be among the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in Singapore's construction and marine industries.
Some new Zika cases have been found beyond the cluster area where the virus was initially detected. "We have been tracking Zika for a while now, and knew it was only a matter of time before it reached Singapore," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong posted on his Facebook page. "Our best defence is to eradicate mosquitoes and destroy breeding habitats, all over Singapore."
Singapore is the only Asian country with active transmission of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which in pregnant women can lead to serious birth defects. Malaysia confirmed its first case of Zika infection, in a woman who had recently visited Singapore. The United States, Australia and other countries have added Singapore to the growing list of places that pregnant women or those trying to conceive have been warned to avoid.
Malaysia Measures
The World Health Organisation (WHO), which declared Zika an international public health emergency, was holding a regular meeting of its Zika emergency committee on Thursday to review the spread of the disease. Malaysia, which has two land border crossings with Singapore, asked those going to the city-state to use mosquito repellent and to cover up to avoid bites. Tens of thousands of people travel between the two countries daily.
Indonesia has also stepped up protective measures following the Singapore outbreak, intensifying checks on arrivals from Singapore and posting paramedics at airports and border checkpoints. Zika is primarily spread by mosquitoes but can also be transmitted through unprotected sex with an infected person. A case of suspected transmission through a blood transfusion in Brazil has raised questions about other ways it may be spread.
Several companies and government agencies are working to develop vaccines against Zika. On Thursday, Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceuticals said it has joined the effort with help from US funding, and it expects to begin human testing in 2017.