LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh has been put on high alert after 11 zika virus cases came to light in Kanpur since October 23.
“So far, Kanpur has recorded 11 confirmed cases of zika infection. Under the circumstances, it is necessary to be alert and spread awareness. Run dengue testing intensively, treat ill people at hospitals and make all necessary arrangements for this. Keep track of each patient’s health condition and also step up surveillance. For prevention, undertake extensive sanitisation and fogging drives and make full use of nigrani samitis (surveillance committees),” the CM told the health officers.
Meanwhile, the health department has sounded an alert across districts and intensified surveillance under its infectious disease control campaign to identify zika cases.
Dr Vedvrat Singh, director general of medical health, said, “We are conducting the infectious disease control campaign in the state and all the staff have been briefed about the zika virus cases and asked to keep a watch in their respective areas although districts other than Kanpur have not reported zika cases till now.”
He added that the health staffers were asked to report and get all the fever cases tested irrespective of the reasons and medical history.
In Kanpur, the health department has formed more than 100 teams of auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs), Ashas (accredited social health activists) and health department employees to locate pregnant women and screen them thoroughly, said Dr GK Mishra, additional director (health) of Kanpur division.
The decision was taken after 400 pregnant women, out of 52,000 screened, were found extremely vulnerable to the zika virus in southeast Kanpur, according to a statistical analysis by the health department which was done under the guidance of specialists from Delhi and Lucknow, in the last one week. So far, medical teams have collected samples of 106 pregnant women and sent them for zika tests.
At present, of the 11 cases of Zika virus in Kanpur, one pregnant woman has also tested positive and she is being monitored round the clock, a senior health official said.
According to health experts, the zika virus causes microcephaly and Guillain-Barré (GB) syndrome in pregnant women. Microcephaly is a birth defect that happens as affecting the growth of a baby’s head in the womb.
Experts, meanwhile, were also discussing whether the zika virus was prevalent in Kanpur for long.
“Virus may have been here in Kanpur for long and (cases) have only come to light now,” Dr GK Mishra said, adding that the notion gets strength as the patients testing positive for the virus now are largely asymptomatic.
Meanwhile, malaria control teams are carrying out a comprehensive campaign to destroy mosquito-breeding points in a 3-km radius of Kanpur’s Chakeri area.
The 3-km radius of the place where the first case was reported has been divided into clusters, with each being combed by the health teams with a clear brief to trace pregnant women, test and monitor them along with the patients of fever, said Kanpur district magistrate Vishakh G Iyer.
In Lucknow, over 4,000 staff members are conducting surveillance.
The first case of the zika virus in Kanpur was confirmed on October 23. An Indian Air Force (IAF) warrant officer suffering from fever was admitted in the Air Force hospital where the doctors decided to go for further tests. His samples were sent to SGPGIMS (Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences) in Lucknow, where it was confirmed that he was infected with the zika virus.
Thereafter, two more IAF personnel and seven others tested positive for the zika virus.
Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that spreads through the bite of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. According to the World Health Organisation, Aedes mosquitoes usually bite during the day, peaking during early morning and late afternoon or evening.
In the normal course, the symptoms of the zika virus disease are mild and include fever, conjunctivitis, muscle, and joint pain, and rashes.