This Timeline of the Zika Virus in S’pore Will Make You do Your Mozzie Wipeout Religiously

With the news abuzz with reports of Zika outbreaks here and there, I am quite sure quite a number of people (including myself) have lost track of what had happened. So to recap…

Timeline of Zika in Singapore

Aug 22: The Sims Drive Medical Clinic in Aljunied notified MOH of an unusual spike in mild cases with fever, rash, and joint pains.

Aug 23: The initial assumption was that a mild viral transmission between people. The MOH arranged for the clinic to refer new cases to the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) for further testing and  begin tracing previous  cases to determine if testing is needed. MOH also communicated with nearby clinics and construction sites to be more vigilant and report cases to them.

Aug 25: MOH approached a nearby construction  site for workers with fever. Also, a 47-year-old Malaysian woman, the first reported locally transmitted case, developed rash and conjunctivitis.

Aug 26: The woman, sole female among the 41 cases, visited Sims Drive Medical Clinic and was referred to the CDC.

Aug 27: The woman, confirmed by the CDC as locally Zika-infected, was warded. NEA was notified and commenced anti-mosquito breeding operations (vector control). The woman’s family was screened. 123 people, including 118 construction workers of a nearby site, who were recently or currently symptomatic were tested.

Aug 28: MOH and NEA announced 41 locally transmitted Zika cases with 34 making full recovery and seven are recovering in hospital. More cases are possible.

Aug 29: MOH confirmed additional 15 cases; 2 cases worked at the Sims Drive construction site and 13 cases live or work in Sims Drive/Aljunied Crescent area.

Aug 30: Additional 26 cases of locally transmitted Zika infection were confirmed; bringing the total to 82. 17 are live or work in the Sims Drive/ Aljunied Crescent area and five live or work in Kallang Way and Paya Lebar Way, north of Sims Drive/Aljunied.  57 of the infected are foreigners comprising of 10 Bangladeshis, 23 Chinese, 15 Indians, an Indonesian, six Malaysians, one from Myanmar, and a Taiwanese.

Aug 31: First case of infected pregnant woman case and 31 additional cases were confirmed. Of the 31, three were not connected to any cluster but are from Tagore Avenue, Yishun Street 81 and Harvey Crescent.

1 Sept: Additional 36 cases were confirmed, including a second pregnant woman. She is linked to the Aljunied Crescent-Sims Drive cluster. This brings the total number of cases to 151. NEA conducted vector control operations and outreach efforts in Bedok North Avenue 3, Punggol Way and Joo Seng.

Please, I am sure you really don’t want to add yourself and your family to the increasing number of cases. So don’t give crap reasons like “no time”, “busy”, and “troublesome”. Just go do the 10 minute mozzie wipeout. Now!

Featured image: theverge.com

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com