A 60-YEAR-OLD woman has come down with Chikungunya fever - the 17th person to contract the mosquito-borne, dengue-like disease while in Singapore.
The housewife, who lives in Jalan Jelita, off Holland Road, fell ill last Thursday.
She sought out-patient treatment the next day.
Investigations showed that she probably caught the virus in Singapore, as neither she nor her family had gone overseas recently.
Health officers have screened her family members and foreign workers working at nearby construction sites for the virus. All tested negative.
Health Ministry on Thursday said said there is no need for mass screening in the area for now, as there is no evidence of further transmission.
Chikungunya surfaced in Singapore in January this year, infecting 13 people in Little India.
This was followed by three similar cases in June - two in Teachers Estate, off Upper Thomson Road, and an expatriate housewife living in Farrer Road.
Another 31 people were infected with chikungunya while overseas, bringing the tally so far this year to 48.
Like dengue, chikungunya is spread by the Aedes mosquito. Its symptoms, which usually appear within days, include fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle ache, rash and joint pain.
These are similar to symptoms of dengue, which makes diagnosing the disease difficult. It can be distinguished only after a laboratory test of the patient's blood.
