NEW DELHI: Following requests by India’s top health research body, the US administration has revised a travel advisory that advised pregnant American women against visiting India due to an outbreak of Zika virus.
In December 2018, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, USA had issued a travel health notice on Zika virus in India.
The travel advisory had said that India has an ongoing outbreak of Zika virus in Rajasthan and its surrounding states. It cautioned pregnant women against travelling to areas where the outbreak has been reported. Women planning pregnancy were also advised to revise their travel plans.
Following a letter by ICMR to withdraw or modify the travel advisory in the light of evidence of containing the outbreak in India, the advisory, however, was changed last week.
In the new notice by the CDC, US issued on March 27, the status of India has been changed from “ongoing outbreak” to “current or past transmission but no current outbreak” of Zika virus.
In September-October last year, nearly 100 cases of Zika virus, which spreads from a mosquito bite and often leads to severe malformation, including microcephaly and other birth defects, in babies born to infected women, had been confirmed in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
ICMR has now also initiated a study to understand the outcomes of pregnancy of women infected with Zika.