KOTA KINABALU – Health enforcement officials are using a court order to force their way into “inaccessible premises” at Taman Public Jaya Apartment in Likas to fog and look for mosquito breeding grounds.
The apartment is where a 61-year-old Malaysian contracted the Zika virus and died on Sept 3 due to heart complications. He was the first case of locally transmitted Zika virus in the country.
City Hall director-general Joannes Solidau said the ongoing operation to force entry into 51 inaccessible premises started on Saturday.
“Our men fumigate the premises and also carry out checks for mosquito breeding areas within the apartment units,” he said.
He also said the 10 people who were in direct contact with the first Zika victim have been cleared of the infection.
What is the Zika virus?
The US CDC issued guidelines for doctors caring for pregnant women who might have been exposed to Zika virus
It is a mosquito-borne infection that can cause brain damage in a developing foetus.
Women who have travelled to regions in which Zika is active and who report symptoms during or within two weeks of travel should be offered a test for Zika virus infection.
Those who test positive should be offered an ultrasound to check the foetus’s head size or check for calcium deposits in the brain, two indicators of microcephaly.
These women should also be offered a test of their amniotic fluid called amniocentesis to confirm the presence of Zika virus.
A new test kit that rapidly diagnoses three different mosquito-borne viruses
Currently, 22 areas in Latin America and the Caribbean have active Zika virus transmission.
The Aedes mosquitoes have brought about the dreaded dengue fever and now the Zika virus that is also being transmitted through Aedes is feared to cause babies born with deformed brains.
Concern over the Zika virus spread in the Americas has led the World Health Organisation to send out an alert for the infection.
The disease showed symptoms similar to dengue such as fever, muscle ache, joint pain, headache, pain behind eyes, conjunctivitis and rashes.
As of now, treatment available was only to relieve the symptoms.
To avoid getting infected, use insect repellent, wear clothing that cover the body, arms and legs, and sleep under mosquito nets or in rooms with wire mesh.
There is no preventive vaccine or treatment, according to the CDC.
Measures needed to prevent and control Zika virus were similar to the measures taken against the dengue virus, such as seeking and destroying breeding places.
The symptoms were usually mild for adults but the main concern was for pregnant mothers.
A baby born with brain damage at a hospital in Oahu, Hawaii, has been confirmed to have been infected by the Zika virus while in the mother’s womb.
Researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal are in Brazil to train local researchers to combat the Zika virus epidemic.
Reuters, The Straits Times, The New Paper, NEA
Solidau said they expect to continue operations to completely check a total 51 units in the next few days.
“We hope owners or occupants would co-operate with us,” he added.
Solidau also said health authorities have been carrying out fumigation work, checks and public education on the 775 apartments and houses within 400m of the Public Jaya apartment.
So far there have been no official reports of any new Zika cases in the state.
In Johor Baru, State Health and Environment Committee chairman Datuk Ayub Rahmat advised home owners and offices to make sure there were no mosquito breeding spots in their premises.
He also advised the public to use larvicide in water tanks.
“Water containers must be emptied and covered as they could potentially become breeding grounds,” he said in a statement.
Ayub also encouraged people to use insect repellent or spray insecticide before leaving their homes.
He also advised visitors from Singapore to spray their vehicles with insecticide to prevent mosquitoes from travelling between the two countries.
In Johor, the husband of a pregnant woman with Zika had been confirmed as the fourth patient to be infected by the disease.
The 25-year-old patient, who was tested positive for Zika, has been warded at the Government hospital in Johor Baru.
The Health Ministry had said in a statement recently that the man, who resides in Johor Baru with his wife, had travelled to Singapore daily for work.
“The patient has no other close contacts in Malaysia other than his mother-in-law and wife,” said ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
The man’s 27-year-old wife became the first pregnant woman in the country to test positive for Zika.
