MOM urges employers to advise travelling helpers to take precautions against Nipah virus

SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has urged employers of migrant domestic workers to advise their maids who are travelling to

areas affected by the

Nipah virus

to take precautions to protect their health.

In the advisory on Jan 31, MOM said employers should advise their helpers to stay away from bats, pigs and unwell persons, eat fully cooked food and practise good hygiene.

They should also avoid consuming food and drinks that could be contaminated by bats, such as raw date palm sap. The Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA),

in an advisory on Jan 28

, had also cautioned against eating fruit found on the ground.

Helpers who feel unwell during or after travel should see a doctor immediately, said MOM.

The CDA said that it is closely monitoring the

Nipah virus outbreak in

West Bengal, India

, where two human cases were reported.

It is the seventh Nipah virus outbreak in India since 2001, said CDA, which added that current cases remain localised to West Bengal.

Vigilance has been stepped up in Singapore through measures such as increased vigilance at hospitals and emergency departments for infections in patients, temperature screening at the airport for flights arriving from affected areas, and increased surveillance of newly arrived migrant workers from South Asia.

Professor Wang Linfa, an infectious diseases expert at the Duke-NUS Medical School, said that overall, the risk of the infection beyond the current known region is very low, with sporadic outbreaks occurring almost every year in India and Bangladesh.

“Although it can spread from person to person in very unusual cases, transmission is not easy and typically requires prolonged contact with an infected individual,” he added.