Teachers’ Estate chikungunya-free

Today Online 10 Jun 08;

THE coast is clear — at least for some residents of Teachers’ Estate, the latest area where chikungunya surfaced.

Blood tests conducted by the National Environment Agency (NEA) showed that 311 people working and living in the private housing estate located off Upper Thomson Road were free of the virus.

The checks come after the Ministry of Health (MOH) was notified last week that two people living in the estate — an 86-year-old retiree and a domestic helper from the same household — had contracted the fever.

It was the first time that locally contracted cases of chikungunya had been reported to the MOH outside the Little India area early this year.

The MOH said 23 cases of chikungunya fever had been reported this year, with 15 of them contracted locally.

To combat the disease, the NEA conducted intensive inspection and fogging operations over the weekend. It checked more than 170 homes and 18 cases of mosquito breeding were detected. It will continue to monitor the situation. — SHERALYN TAY

Checks find no new cases of chikungunya in Teachers Housing Estate
Channel NewsAsia 9 Jun 08;

SINGAPORE: Following the detection of two cases of chikungunya fever last week, the authorities have conducted property checks and taken blood samples from residents and workers in the Teachers Housing Estate, off Upper Thomson Road.

All the 311 samples collected between last Thursday and Saturday have been tested negative for the virus.

Officers from the National Environment Agency (NEA), who have found 18 instances of mosquito breeding, inspected over 170 premises in the estate and sprayed over 100 of them with insecticide.

According to the Health Ministry, the two cases last week brought the total number of reported cases of the disease in Singapore to 23 this year.- CNA/so