By DPA
Singapore : Singapore health authorities said Friday they are screening hundreds of people after six foreign workers from India and Bangladesh were diagnosed for chikungunya fever, a mosquito-borne infection 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.
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 recent victims 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 Monday by a doctor that a 27-year-old Bangladeshi man had tested positive for the virus.
The National Environment Agency launched a massive search-and destroy operation for mosquitoes amid a dengue outbreak last year.