S'pore mulls surveillance programme for Zika-infected babies

The Ministry of Health is exploring plans to set up a national surveillance programme to monitor the development of babies born to pregnant women with Zika, Channel NewsAsia reported.

The ministry is keeping close tabs on the pregnant women who have been notified to have the Zika virus infection, said the report late Friday.

The MOH reportedly said that a total of 16 pregnant women have been confirmed to have the Zika virus in Singapore, nearly a month since the first locally transmitted Zika case was detected by authorities.

The doctors of the pregnant women are following up closely with them to provide counselling and support, the report said.

According to Channel NewsAsia, early results from a study in Brazil have linked Zika infection in pregnant women to microcephaly in their babies - a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems.

Microcephaly has been tracked by Singapore's national birth defects registry since January 1993, it said.

The report said that between 2011 and 2014, the annual number of microcephaly cases registered with the registry in Singapore ranged from five to 12 per 10,000 live births in Singapore.

There have been no microcephaly cases associated with the Zika virus infection reported in Singapore so far, it said.

Citing data on the National Environment Agency's website, the report said that as of Friday there were 387 confirmed Zika cases in Singapore.

The Health Ministry confirmed that 658 Zika tests were conducted between Sept 7 and Sept 17 and of these 197 were for pregnant and or symptomatic individuals who required the test, it said. -- BERNAMA