Two more persons were reported to catch a mosquito-borne, dengue-like disease named Chikungunya fever in Singapore, local media reported Friday.
This brought the total number of people infected with the virus to eight, according to local television Channel NewsAsia.
The Ministry of Health said both men had been sent to isolation wards at the Communicable Disease Center to prevent them from being bitten again by mosquitoes, which may spread the infection further.
On the previous day, the ministry announced that six foreign workers had contracted Chikungunya, and it seemed that they got it locally as they had not traveled out of the country for several months.
The tropical disease first appeared here in 2006, but all cases since then were imported ones.
The Health Ministry said all eight were living in the same area.
Of the eight, four have recovered. The rest are still under observation in the hospital.
Like the dengue virus, the Chikungunya virus is spread by the Aedes mosquito. The symptoms are similar for both, such as fever, joint pains, chills and nausea, and there is currently no vaccine or cure.
The first case of locally-transmitted Chikungunya fever in Singapore was reported on Monday.
Since then, the health and environment officials have swung into action to investigate how the outbreak here began, as well as stepped up search-and-destroy operations for mosquitoes in the area the eight men lives.
Source: Xinhua
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