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1st LD: Malaysia confirms first case of Zika infection

Xinhua, September 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

Malaysia confirmed its first case of the Zika virus on Thursday in a woman who had recently travelled to Singapore, which had a sudden increase in new Zika cases in recent days.

The virus, which has caused alarm among Malaysian health authorities, was detected in a 58-year-old woman from Bandar Botanic, Klang in Selangor, said Malaysia's health minister Dr. S.Subramaniam at a press conference. She has been admitted to the hospital.

It is suspected that the woman got infected while visiting her daughter in Singapore from Aug. 19 to Aug. 21. She began to exhibit symptoms of rash on Aug. 28 and was tested positive on Aug. 30, according to a press release from the ministry.

The woman's husband and family members who lived in the same house with her, have yet to show any symptoms of Zika infection, said the minister, but the husband also went to Singapore during the same period to visit their daughter.

The health ministry has already started "vector control" operations to control the mosquito population in the residential area of the case and other places that the patient had visited.

Such operations include fogging and eliminating breeding sites of Aedes mosquitoes, which were found to carry the Zika virus in affected countries.

Subramaniam urged residents to allow vector control officers to enter their house to make such measures successful. Endit