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SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Health (MINSA) will offer free and voluntary tuberculosis (TB) screenings to residents and former residents of a single block in Hougang as a precaution after four people from the block were found to have contracted the disease .
“The Ministry of Health was notified on October 10, 2020 of four tuberculosis cases involving residents of the same HDB block at 174D Hougang Avenue 1, which were diagnosed between January 2018 (and) June 2020,” the ministry said. in a press release on Saturday (Oct 24).
“The four individuals live in different units of Block 174D. The cases had started treatment immediately after diagnosis. Among them, two have completed treatment, while the remaining two are currently in treatment and are no longer infectious.
“As people diagnosed with TB will quickly become non-infectious once treatment begins, the cases are not an ongoing risk to public health,” the MOH added.
The assessment will take place at the Tuberculosis Control Unit (TBCU) located on Moulmein Road beginning October 26.
Between Sunday and Tuesday, unit officers and the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) will conduct home visits to all units in Block 174D Hougang Avenue 1 to “engage affected residents and encourage them to undertake the proof”.
Residents will be able to schedule exam appointments at TBCU during home visits or call the unit to schedule an appointment. Former residents who have lived on the block since February 2020 and want to be screened can call the TBCU hotline.
The Health Ministry said that the Singapore TB Elimination Program (STEP) had initiated contact investigations following the notification of the four cases. Close contacts of the cases were identified and contacted by STEP for screening.
“Investigations of each of the four cases at the time of their diagnosis did not identify each other as close contacts,” the ministry said.
He added that expanding TB screening beyond close contacts of cases was a “precautionary measure to secure and protect residents living on the same block.”
“The exercise could help detect any case of undiagnosed tuberculosis,” the Health Ministry said.
People with positive screening results will be offered appropriate counseling and follow-up. Those with active TB will be “treated immediately” while those with latent non-infectious TB will be monitored and treated if necessary, the ministry said.
HOW THE HOUGANG CLUSTER WAS DETERMINED
The Health Ministry said that the group in the Hougang block was “determined due to the results of genetic sequencing performed in October 2020 as part of retrospective testing of tuberculosis cases to determine possible links.”
“This revealed that the four cases have a similar genetic makeup.
“The investigations of the cases did not reveal any common link, except that they live in the same block. They did not know or interact with each other, nor congregate in the same common areas, and they had not identified each other as close contacts.
“Therefore, the tuberculosis group does not fit the usual pattern of spread of tuberculosis,” the ministry said.
Generally, tuberculosis is transmitted through close and prolonged contact with an infectious person and not through contact with items or surfaces touched by a person with tuberculosis.
According to the Ministry of Health, tuberculosis is endemic in Singapore and latent tuberculosis infection is not uncommon in the population because the disease had been prevalent in the country until the 1970s. Older Singaporeans may have been exposed and acquired a latent tuberculosis infection when they were younger.
Those with latent tuberculosis do not experience tuberculosis symptoms and are not infectious, he added.
“Tuberculosis is curable and the spread of tuberculosis can be prevented. Early detection and timely treatment of cases remain important to help those infected and make them non-infectious. For people diagnosed with active TB, adherence to treatment it is important, “said the Ministry of Health.
