Zika virus cases tally reaches 11 now, woman tests +ve

Revised
Kanpur: The city reported one more case of Zika virus on Monday, taking the total tally of cases to 11.
Chief medical officer (CMO) Kanpur Nagar Dr Nepal Singh said that pathology samples of a 42 year-old woman from Shiv Katra, sent to the KGMU lab in Lucknow and National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune tested positive for Zika virus on Monday.
So far, 11 people including three IAF staff from in Chakeri area have tested positive for Zika infection.
“The surveillance team took the sample of the woman, who is asymptomatic, and sent it for test. She has been kept under observation. Samples of her family members, relatives and people in contact will be collected on Tuesday. Anti-larva spray, cleaning and fogging will also be done by the surveillance teams in the area,” said the CMO.
In a statement, district magistrate Visakh G Iyer said that there is no need to panic. “Zika virus does not spread by contact or aerosols instead it is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which also causes dengue and chikungunya. It can easily be curtailed by strict surveillance and awareness,” he said. The DM also visited Shyam Nagar area from where cases of Zika virus have been reported. He also inspected the work being done by the municipal team and the survey work.
Meanwhile, a house-to-house survey was conducted by 65 surveillance teams of health, civic, para-medical personnel and staff of local administration in the affected areas including IAF station on Monday. The surveillance teams collected samples from across 12 localities spread in a radius of 3 km in Chakeri area. The teams also examined people having fever-like symptoms and also checked the presence of Aedes aegypti larvae in water containers.
“On Monday, the surveillance teams visited Om Purwa, Badli Purwa, Bhawani Nagar, Shyam Nagar E block, Girja Nagar, Koyla Nagar, Tiwaripur Bagiya, Tulsi Nagar, Adarsh Nagar, Pokharpurwa, Kazi Kheda and Kakori pockets of Chakeri and collected 456 samples. The samples have been sent to Lucknow’s KGMU and NIV Pune for investigation. Till date, 1,745 samples have been collected,” said the CMO.
On Monday, the work on source reduction of Zika was carried out in 8,937 households, said the CMO adding, “So far, we have covered 15,153 households.”
“Our surveillance teams also sensitised people about the hazard of stagnant water and asked them to empty pots, containers and tanks filled with water,” said the CMO. “We are closely monitoring the pregnant women in the localities,” he said.