JAIPUR/NEW DELHI: Confirming 29
Zika positive cases reported from Shastri Nagar area, additional chief secretary (health) Veenu Gupta alleged that her teams are facing resistance from people in some houses of Shastri Nagar. The health officials are not allowed to enter their houses for conducting antilarvae activities. Meanwhile, the health ministry on Tuesday appealed to people not to panic and assured them that Zika outbreak was under control.
“Zika cases have been detected due to our strong surveillance system. Our surveillance is very robust and all such cases get detected. We have standard protocols, and in collaboration with the WHO, we follow them to see whether it is an isolated case or a collective case. The ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), National Centre for Disease Control and DGHS (Directorate General of Health Services) are monitoring the current situation continuously. I want to assure citizens of India that everything is under control and there is no need to panic,” Union health minister J P Nadda said.
Health department’s teams and Centre’s team are taking coordinated measures in Zika-affected area to prevent its spread to other areas. But, the health teams are facing some challenges.
“We are facing challenges in conducting activities for preventing spread of Zika. There are people showing resistance and they are not willing us to give their samples and also they do not allow health teams to enter their homes,” said Gupta. She said that they have conducted survey of 26,000 houses since the first case of Zika on September 22. She said that daily 150 teams of health department are conducting survey of the houses. She said that samples of urine and serum of 450 suspected cases, including 160 pregnant women have already been taken for Zika testing.
However, Centre team officials claimed that they have found larvea in almost 80% of the houses they surveyed in Shastri Nagar area. “Since, a lot of mosquitoes are present in abundance, it will take some time to wipe them off,” said Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh, member of Centre’s team.
The first case of Zika was reported on September 22, when an 85-year-old woman was tested positive for Zika. Dr Singh said, “The moment we came to know about the case, we were clear that there must be more such cases. We found second case at a difference of four houses from the house of first Zika patient.”
However, health department is also finding it difficult as the area is densely populated and they are finding open water tanks helping mosquito breeding.
Dr Singh said that a person who had gone to Bihar and found infected with Zika has no link with the outbreak of Zika in Jaipur. “The person had gone to Bihar. He returned to Jaipur on September 15 and on September 19, he complained of fever. The Centre’s team have reached Siwan of Bihar and investigating into the case.,” said Dr Singh.