Earth Times
18th Jan 2008
Singapore - Singapore health authorities said Friday they are screening hundreds of people after six foreign workers from India and Bangladesh caught chikungunya, a mosquito-borne disease similar to dengue fever. To curb its spread, environmental and health teams are checking everyone who lives or works within a 150-metre radius of the cases.
Dr Lyn James, director of the health ministry's communicable disease division, told The Straits Times all infected individuals will be tracked down "to prevent the disease from taking a foothold in Singapore."
Like dengue, the chikungunya virus is spread by the Aedes mosquito. Symptoms are similar, including fever, joint pains, chills and nausea.
No treatment is available. The disease usually runs its course but has claimed lives in India and Reunion Island.
Chikungunya appeared in Singapore initially in 2006, but all cases since then were imported ones until now. The six, in their 20s and 30s, have not been out of Singapore recently.
Four have recovered while the rest were admitted to the Communicable Disease Centre.
The ministry was notified on Monday by a doctor that a 27-year-old Bangladesh man had tested positive for the virus.
Conditions in Singapore including the presence of the Aedes mosquito and a population with no immunity to this disease are ripe for chikungunya to become endemic, said Associate Professor Leo Yee Sin, clinical director of the Communicable Disease Centre.
The National Environment Agency launched a massive search-and destroy operation for mosquitoes amid a dengue outbreak last year.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/175295,singapore-fighting-outbreak-of-chikungunya-disease.html
