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 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 centers 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.
TRAVEL ADVISORIES
The United States, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia have
warned pregnant women not to travel to Singapore.
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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 neighboring 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.
(Additional reporting by Joseph Sipalan in Kuala Lumpur and Ben
Blanchard in Beijing; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by
Bill Tarrant)
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