The doctors who raised the alarm over Zika in Singapore
Dr Chi Wei Ming (left) and Dr Lim Chien Chuan. Photo: Sharlene Maria Sankaran
It was in the second week of August that the three doctors at Sims Drive Medical Clinic sensed that something was amiss with their patients.
They had begun seeing as many as 10 patients a day with fever, rashes and joint pains. By comparison, the clinic at Block 53 Sims Place usually sees, at most, two or three such cases in a day.
“Most of them are very mild. They say they have fever and rash, but most of them have subsided by the time they come and see us the next day, or day two or day three,” recalled Dr Lim Chien Chuan.
Dr Lim was speaking to reporters at the clinic on Monday (29 August), alongside his colleague Dr Chi Wei Ming. Their other colleague Dr Tan May Yen, was not on duty.
Lim noted that it was difficult to notice trends among their patients, because he, Dr Chi and Dr Tan are rarely on duty at the same time.
But it was Dr Tan who drew attention to the “sudden spike” in the aforementioned cases. Further suspicions were aroused when the patients tested negative for dengue, chikungunya, measles and rubella.
At the time, the doctors were uncertain as to whether it might be Zika, given that most of the cases did not have recent travel history.
It was then that the trio sought the assistance of the Ministry of Health (MOH) on 22 August, which ultimately led to the discovery of Singapore’s first locally transmitted Zika case on Saturday (27 August).
On Sunday (28 August), MOH announced 41 confirmed cases of locally transmitted Zika among residents or workers in the Aljunied Crescent and Sims Drive area. The 41 cases were detected following tests conducted on Saturday, which included testing on 118 construction workers.
Dr Chi said, “We (now) know what’s wrong with the patients, but on the flip side, it means that Zika is now in the community, so everybody has to put in effort to do the necessary steps.”
