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Given its proximity to Singapore, the announcement 4 days ago by the Malaysian MOH: 1st Locally Acquired Zika Case, came as little surprise. At the time, the Director General of Health for Malaysia Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah warned additional cases could be expected.
Yesterday the MOH site carried a report (see here) confirming two cases (1 imported, 1 local), but denying a 3rd rumored to have occurred in Pahang.
Ministry of Health (MoH) took note of a partnership for "viral on social media about the claim that there is a case Zika in Pahang. For the record, so far no cases were detected in Pahang Zika. Until 5 September 2016, in Malaysia there were 2 cases of Zika has confirmed the first case in the State of Selangor and the second case in the state of Sabah.
While an update has yet to appear on the MOH site, Dr. Abdullah's Facebook page has the following statement posted early Wednesday Evening (Malaysia Time-MYT ) on what appears to be a second locally acquired case, this time in a 27 year-old woman who is 4 months pregnant.
UPDATE ON ZIKA SITUATION IN MALAYSIA
7TH SEPTEMBER 2016.
THIRD CONFIRMED ZIKA CASE IN MALAYSIA
On 6th September 2016, the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) has received a report on the third confirmed Zika infection involving a 27-year-old Chinese lady who is staying in Taman Desa Harmoni, Johor Bharu.
The patient is currently pregnant around 4 months with her first child. She started having rash, fever and body ache on 2nd September 2016. She sought medical attention in Government Hospital on the 5th September 2016 after being referred to hospital by a private General Practitioner and was admitted for further investigation.
On the 6th September 2016, her Zika confirmation test was positive.
Based on the investigation by the MOH, 6 months ago the patient had a traveling history to Singapore. However, the husband does commute daily for work to Geylang, Singapore.
Her husband also had symptoms on the 2nd September 2016 and was admitted to the ward for further investigations. The pregnant patient is currently under observation and the care of the Obstetric and Genecology for continuous monitoring of the mother and baby. The mother of the patient who is a close contact to this patient would also be screened; however thus far she has no symptoms of Zika.
Vector control activities were done immediately at the patient’s residence and other places that she had visited in Johor. Until now, 400 houses were examined and 450 premises were fogged. Active Case Detection are currently ongoing.
At the moment, the MOH has set that all pregnant women that has signs and symptoms of Zika infection and confirmed positive with Zika infection, will be admitted to the ward. Besides that, pregnant woman that has no signs or symptoms but has a partner that is confirmed with Zika infection, confirmatory test will be conducted for the woman.
Based on the monitoring done by the MOH uptill 7th September 2016, the number of confirmed Zika cases in the country are three ( 3 ) cases. The first reported case was an imported case from Singapore while the second and third cases are locally transmitted cases reported in Sabah and Johor.
In addition, monitoring by MOH from 1 - 6 September 2016, there were 30 reported cases that has similar signs and symptoms of Zika but all of them were found to be negative when tested for Zika infection.
The MOH has advised women who tested positive for Zika infection, to avoid being pregnant and to practice safe sex for at least 8 weeks from the date of diagnosis. As for men who are tested positive for Zika, they are advised to practice safe sex or abstain from sexual intercourse for a period of 6 months. In preventing the spread of Zika infection in the country, the MOH also recommends that all parties to work together and play active role in eliminating Aedes breeding places every week.
No Aedes , No Zika and Dengue.
YB DATUK SERI DR. S. SUBRAMANIAM
MINISTER OF HEALTH MALAYSIA
7th September 2016
