MANILA: The Zika virus is set to spread through Asia, the World Health Organization warned Monday, with hundreds of cases reported in Singapore and two Thai babies diagnosed with Zika-linked microcephaly.

The mosquito-borne virus has been detected in 70 countries worldwide including at least 19 countries in the Asia Pacific region, said WHO director for health security and emergencies Li Ailan.

A WHO report released at the annual regional meeting in Manila said the virus was “highly likely to further spread in the region” which includes China, Japan, Australia, most Southeast Asian nations and the Pacific islands.

“It is highly likely that the region will continue to report new cases and possibly new outbreaks of Zika,” the report added.

WHO director Margaret Chan said leaders in the region had expressed concerns over the outbreak, adding that experts were still grappling with ways to tackle the scourge.

“Unfortunately, scientists do not yet have answers to many critical questions,” she said.

There have been more than 400 Zika cases detected in Singapore, while Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia have reported fewer than 20 each, said Chan.

Zika causes only mild symptoms in most, including fever, sore eyes and a rash. But pregnant women with the mosquito-borne virus risk giving birth to babies with microcephaly — a deformation that leads to abnormally small brains and heads.

Li said Zika has been in the region since 1947 but said it was difficult to pinpoint if individuals had been infected overseas, with the region’s tropical weather, large mosquito populations and international travel hubs potential factors. -AFP </s> Local administrative offices across the country have enacted measures against the spread of Zika virus after a slew of infections were reported.

Ang Thong Municipality has begun spraying against mosquitoes following news 94 people in the province of Bueng Kan contracted the disease with one still recovering.

According to Bueng Kan public health officer Dr. Wissanu Wittayabumrung, the 94 were found in 5 districts of the province. He affirmed 93 are completely recovered and that monitoring practices are being maintained in all susceptible areas.

Ang Thong public health officer Dr. Songwuth Hutamai let on that an order has been issued for all public health offices to enact precautionary measures against Zika, including in areas where no infections have yet been found.

The action comes ahead of a World Health Organization emergency meeting prompted by an outbreak of Zika in Singapore, which also led to travel warnings against the country being issued by nations such as Australia, Taiwan and the US.

While Zika is relatively minor among other viruses, it has been tied to a fetal condition seen when pregnant mothers contract the illness. </s> Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Singaporean authorities have been fumigating areas where mosquitoes breed

Zika infections are "highly likely" to keep spreading in Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Hundreds of cases of the virus have been reported in Singapore while two cases of Zika-linked microcephaly have already been confirmed in Thailand.

The mosquito-borne virus has been detected in 70 countries worldwide, at least 19 in the Asia Pacific region.

WHO director Margaret Chan said experts were still looking for ways to deal with the virus.

Zika virus: The outbreak in Asia

'New outbreaks'

In a report released on Monday at its annual meeting in Manila, the WHO said it is "highly likely that the region will continue to report new cases and possibly new outbreaks of Zika".

This is because the carrier of the disease - the Aedes mosquito - is widely found in the region, which also sees a high volume of travel.

There is also still uncertainty about the level of immunity in the regional population, the report added.

"Unfortunately, scientists do not yet have answers to many critical questions [about Zika]," Ms Chan said at the meeting.

Though the virus is known to have existed in Asia for decades, she noted that the first sign of its presence in some countries came from travellers whose Zika infections were only confirmed once they returned home.

"Is this weak surveillance, an indication of population-wide immunity, or proof that the virus has somehow acquired greater epidemic potential?" she asked.

Zika generally has mild effects but is more dangerous for pregnant women as it has been linked to severe birth defects, including the brain deformation microcephaly.

The latest large-scale outbreak originated in Brazil. </s> SINGAPORE, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Singapore confirmed 26 more cases of locally-transmitted Zika infections on Tuesday, bringing the tally to 82, local media reported, citing the health ministry and National Environment Agency.

Of these, five cases were detected in parts of Singapore outside the Aljunied area where all the previous cases were found, media reported.

The Zika virus was detected in Brazil last year and has since spread across the Americas. It poses a risk to pregnant women because it can cause severe birth defects. (Reporting by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Ian Geoghegan) </s> KUALA LUMPUR/SINGAPORE, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Malaysia reported its first case of Zika on Thursday, a woman who tested positive for the mosquito-borne virus after a visit to neighbouring Singapore, where 115 people have so far been infected, many of them foreigners.

The 58-year-old victim had shown signs of a rash and fever one week after her return from Singapore on August 21, said Malaysian Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam.

"We are carrying out control measures against aedes mosquitoes near the woman's home to prevent the spread of the virus," he told a news conference.

The Zika virus, which has spread through the Americas and the Caribbean since late last year, is generally a mild disease but is a particular risk to pregnant women. It has been linked to microcephaly - a severe birth defect in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had said Singapore is the only Asian nation with an active Zika virus transmission. Officials in the city-state, one of the world's largest financial centres and busiest travel hubs, reported the first locally transmitted infection on Saturday and said on Wednesday the number had jumped to 115.

Singapore authorities detected infections in people living outside the initial outbreak area and have identified a potential second cluster. A pregnant woman was among the victims, they said.

"Over time, we expect Zika cases to emerge from more areas," Singapore's Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong said in a statement on Wednesday. "We must work and plan on the basis that there is Zika transmission in other parts of Singapore and extend our vector control efforts beyond the current affected areas."

Five Malaysians in Singapore had tested positive for Zika, including the latest victim's adult daughter, who works in Singapore, the Malaysian minister said.

Twenty-one Chinese nationals, 13 Indians, six Bangladeshis, and an Indonesian are also among the 115 cases of Zika reported in Singapore, foreign officials said.

Many are believed to be overseas workers at building sites in Singapore, although the Singapore government has not given details of the victims by nationality.

The United States, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia have warned pregnant women not to travel to Singapore.

The outbreak and advisories come as the tourism industry in Singapore already faces weak global economic growth. Singapore's Tourism Board said it was premature to consider any impact on the sector, adding it remained a "safe travel destination".

More than 55 million people pass through Singapore's Changi airport every year. In the first half of this year, tourism arrivals topped 8 million, around 1 million more than a year earlier.

Malaysia has asked people visiting Singapore to use repellent and cover up to avoid mosquito bites. Tens of thousands of people travel between the two nations each day, by boat, air and across two land border crossings.

Both Malaysia and neighbouring Indonesia have stepped up protective measures following the Singapore outbreak, intensifying checks on people arriving from Singapore, introducing thermal scanners and posting paramedics at airports and border checkpoints.

Zika is carried by mosquitoes, which transmit the virus to humans, but a small number of cases of sexual transmission have been reported in the United States and elsewhere. A case of suspected transmission through a blood transfusion in Brazil has raised questions about other ways Zika may spread.

There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which is a close cousin of dengue and chikungunya and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes. An estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms, however. </s> BANGKOK, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Thailand has recorded about 200 cases of Zika since January, the health ministry said on Tuesday, making it a country with one of the highest numbers of confirmed cases in the region.

It was the first time Thailand's health ministry has confirmed the number of Zika cases this year.

The announcement comes a day after health experts called on Thailand to be more transparent in reporting the Zika threat to the public after health officials played down risks from rising infections of the mosquito-borne virus.

Health officials have expressed concern that disclosing information on Zika, which is linked to serious birth defects, would damage Thailand's lucrative tourism industry.

"Since January, we have recorded about 200 cases and over the past three weeks, we have confirmed an average of 20 new cases per week," Ministry of Public Health spokesman Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai told Reuters.

"The number of cases is stable," he said, without giving further details.

Island city-state Singapore reported its first locally infected Zika patient on Aug. 27 and since then, the number of reported infections has soared to more than 300.

Malaysia and the Philippines have also reported cases.

The virus, which is affecting large parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, has been circulating in Asia for years.

The lineage of the virus circulating in Asia is different to the one in the Americas, researchers say. The level of population immunity to the lineage of Zika in Asia remains unknown, according to the World Health Organization.

Suwannachai urged the public not to panic and reiterated a message aimed at reassuring tourists.

"People shouldn't be scared to visit provinces affected by the Zika virus," Suwannachai said.

Zika infections in pregnant women have been shown to cause microcephaly - a severe birth defect in which the head and brain are undersized - as well as other brain abnormalities.

The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last year in Brazil, which has since confirmed more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly.

Thailand has found no cases of microcephaly linked to Zika and it is monitoring about two dozen pregnant woman and about six who have given birth with no complications, the health ministry said.

In adults, Zika infections have also been linked to a rare neurological syndrome known as Guillain-Barre, as well as other neurological disorders.

The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947. </s> Hong Kong (CNN) The Zika virus is on a rampage in Singapore, with 82 locally-transmitted cases confirmed late Tuesday by the country's Ministry of Health (MOH).

The MOH warns that the figures are likely set to rise, but why is Zika spreading so fast in the city state?

"The proportion of our population that are immune to the Zika virus is likely to be low in Singapore and if you don't have the immunity to provide the roadblocks, then it's likely that the virus will spread fast," Ooi Eng Eong, the deputy director of the Emerging Infectious Disease program at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, told CNN.

Everything you need to know about Zika

Everything you need to know about Zika 01:42

Everything you need to know about Zika

The majority of reported cases are among foreign construction workers based in the residential Aljunied Crescent neighborhood in Singapore. Though cases were limited to this area on Monday, by late Tuesday the MOH reported 26 new cases that showed how the Zika virus had spread to nearby residential areas, raising concerns that the virus could travel even further afield.

While Malaysia and Indonesia announced they would be implementing additional passenger screening procedures at its airports, foreign ministries in the US, Australia, Taiwan and South Korea have all issued alerts, advising pregnant women against traveling to Singapore.

Singapore is known to suffer widely from dengue virus, a mosquito-borne tropical disease that triggers high fevers, headaches, vomiting and skin rashes in those infected.

In 2016, the MOH announced that it expected as many as 30,000 cases in the country.

Ooi explained that the Zika virus' rapid spread in Singapore was likely down to its similarities with the dengue virus.

"Zika is very closely related to dengue. It has all the genetic traits that would allow it to spread where dengue thrives -- the virus can infect and spread through the same Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that spread dengue virus," said Ooi.

With its 5.7 million-strong population packed mostly in crowded urban areas, containing Zika's spread in Singapore is a challenge.

"In Singapore, many people live in densely packed apartment blocks so it's easy for high numbers of people to get infected even if there are only a few mosquitoes flying around," explained Ooi.

As of August 29, Singapore's MOH had screened roughly 5,000 premises out of an estimated 6,000 in the Aljunied Crescent neighborhood to check for mosquito breeding grounds. So far, the agency has detected and destroyed 39 breeding habitats.

The MOH is also urging local residents to play an active role in stopping Zika's spread by distributing information leaflets and advising residents to apply repellent as a precaution.

Jaspar Fuk-Woo Chan, an infectious disease specialist and assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong, supported the MOH's efforts to reduce Zika's spread in Singapore.

"The government are making information on the Zika virus' spread readily available. They've also reacted very quickly to the first local cases by collecting information on the infected people," Chan told CNN.

He added, however, that it would take several weeks to grasp the extent of the outbreak. In the meantime, efforts to curb Zika's spread in the city state, he said, hinged on all citizens using insect repellent and making sure there were no potential mosquito breeding areas around their residential areas.

'Repellents are flying off the shelves'

In a joint statement released Wednesday, Singapore's MOH and the the Clinical Advisory Group (CAG) advised all pregnant women with symptoms of Zika, or with Zika-positive male partners to be tested for the infection.

But not every woman is letting the recent outbreak get to them.

"I'm conscious that I have to be more careful now," Su San, a 30-year-old mother trying for a second child, told CNN. "I'm applying ointments so that I don't get bitten, but I haven't put my plans to have another child on hold."

Rather than locking herself indoors, San said she would avoid areas like parks where mosquitoes were likely to be, and spend recreational time in libraries and museums instead.

For others, the Zika outbreak in Singapore has become an unlikely boon.

Theodore Khng, CEO of mosquito repellent startup Theo10, told CNN that sales of his natural deet-free product had tripled in the last three days.

Khng initially manufactured his product to combat mosquitoes carrying the dengue virus, but admitted that the recent Zika scare had boosted sales.

"People who have used the products before have been buying in bulk for others," said Khng. "The repellents are flying off the shelves." </s> BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is investigating four suspected cases of Zika-related microcephaly in three babies and a 36-week old unborn baby, the public health minister said on Tuesday, in what could be the first cases of Zika-linked microcephaly in Southeast Asia.

A city worker fumigates the area to control the spread of mosquitoes at a university in Bangkok, Thailand, September 13, 2016. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

Several countries in Southeast Asia have reported increasing cases of infection from the mosquito-borne Zika virus but Thailand has one of the highest numbers in the region, with 349 confirmed since January, including 25 pregnant women.

Public Health Minister Piyasakon Sakolsatayadorn said authorities needed to be thorough in their investigation of the cases as confirmation would be “sensitive”.

“The lab results will take at least two days because we have to be thorough with this as it is a big deal and a link hasn’t been detected before,” Piyasakon told Reuters.

“This is a sensitive matter for Thailand,” he said.

U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies.

Piyasakon said the three babies were born with small heads and an ultrasound appeared to indicate the unborn baby had a small head.

Of the four mothers, two were diagnosed with Zika when they were pregnant but two were not confirmed to have had Zika, said Apichai Mongkol, director-general of the ministry’s Department of Medical Sciences.

If a Thai case were confirmed, it would be the first in Southeast Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last year in Brazil, which has confirmed more than 1,600 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.

MONITORING

Some health experts have accused Thailand, which has a thriving tourist industry, of playing down the risk from Zika.

But officials dismiss that saying the response has been adequate and another mosquito-born disease, dengue, which can be deadly, is a bigger threat.

The director-general of Thailand’s Disease Control Department, Amnuay Gajeena, said the four cases were being monitored but he declined to say exactly where they were suspected of contracting the virus.

“It is not in Bangkok,” Amnuay told Reuters. “Both the mothers and babies are being tested and we have sent the tests to several labs.”

There are no specific tests to determine if a baby will be born with microcephaly, but ultrasound scans in the third trimester of pregnancy can identify the problem, according to the WHO.

The World Health Organization lists Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam as countries reporting new cases of Zika.

Singapore has recorded 393 cases since diagnosing its first in August. It has confirmed 16 pregnant women with the virus.

The WHO has also said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.

According to the WHO, there are two major lineages of Zika - an African lineage, which has only been reported in Africa, where the virus was first discovered in 1947, and an Asian lineage of strains.

There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which is a close cousin of dengue and chikungunya and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes. An estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms, making it difficult for pregnant women to know whether they have been infected. </s> SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore said Tuesday it is investigating the severity of its locally transmitted Zika virus, amid a rising number of cases.

Researchers concluded last week that the strain of Zika found in two patients in Singapore was not from South America, but was similar to those found in the region decades ago.

“We cannot tell at this moment whether the viruses found here cause more or less severe disease than those in South America. Further research will be needed to shed light on this,” Health Minister Gan Kim Yong told Parliament.

Singapore announced its first confirmed Zika infection in May, with the virus imported by a 48-year-old man who had traveled to Brazil.

On Monday, the Ministry of Health and National Environment Agency confirmed four more locally transmitted cases, bringing the total to 333, including eight pregnant women.

“It is still early days to ascertain what the long-term trend of Zika infection will be,” Gan said, stopping short of labeling the outbreak an epidemic.

“Even if we can control the present outbreak, we will need to continue to guard against imported cases as the Zika virus is still circulating among many countries, including several in this region,” he said.

Last week, Gan told Channel NewsAsia that Singapore will no longer isolate all Zika patients, except when the infection is “severe or unless they have other conditions that require medical attention.”

The mosquito-borne Zika virus has mild effects on most people, but can be fatal for unborn children. Infection during pregnancy is believed to result in babies with small heads — a condition called microcephaly — and other brain defects.

Every day, about 850 workers in Singapore inspect homes and worksites for possible mosquito breeding grounds. From January to July, 748,000 inspections were conducted and more than 10,000 breeding habitats were destroyed, according to official statistics.

Despite government efforts, the island nation has been included in several travel advisories because of the Zika cases, with experts fearing this will cause a dip in tourism revenue.
The World Health Organization warns that the Zika virus will continue to spread across Asia with cases already reported in Singapore and Thailand.