Three new cases of Zika with no link to existing clusters

The National Environment Agency (NEA) has stated that as of 20 September, 3 pm, there were three new cases of Zika virus infection, bringing the total number to 383 cases.None of the new cases were linked to the existing clusters.Currently, there are nine active clusters of Zika virus infection:

• Aljunied Crescent/ Sims Drive/ Paya Lebar Way/ Kallang Way/ Circuit Road/ Geylang East Central/ Geylang East Avenue 1
• Bedok North Avenue 2/ Bedok North Avenue 3/ Bedok North Street 3
• Joo Seng Road
• Bishan Street 12
• Elite Terrace
• Ubi Crescent
• Jalan Raya/Circuit Road
• Sengkang Ctrl/ Sengkang East Ave
• Hougang Ave 7 (Blk 325)

The Ministry of Health (MOH) had earlier announced that the National Public Health Laboratory and A*STAR’s Bioinformatics Institute had completed the sequencing analysis of the Zika virus found in two patients from the Aljunied Crescent/ Sims Drive cluster.The analysis found that the virus belongs to the Asian lineage and likely evolved from the strain that was already circulating in Southeast Asia. MOH states that the virus from these two patients was not imported from South America. However, the first case that was reported in May 2016 had been confirmed to be the same as the strains currently found in South America.Vector control is still being carried out by NEA to control the spread of the infection via mosquitoes.