Lucknow: Mosquito-borne Zika virus continues to remain a concern in Uttar Pradesh, as 16 more cases were reported in Kanpur, taking total number of Zika virus cases to 106 in the state on Wednesday. The freshly infected include 7 women and 9 men. According to reports, out of the 7 women, two of them are in advanced state of pregnancy.
The 16 patients are residents of Harjinder Nagar, Pokharpur, Tiwaripur Bagiya and Qazi Khera localities in the Chakeri hinterland. The pregnant women who contracted the virus underwent an ultrasound test and doctors confirmed their foetuses were healthy.
“In the report we received from Lucknow’s King George Medical College (KGMC), 7 women and 9 men have been tested positive with Zika virus. The infected persons have no severe symptoms. All of them are kept in home isolation. We have deployed 100 teams in the city for source reduction and 15 teams for home sampling, Also, an additional 15 rapid response teams have been engaged to check Zika virus,” a report in Times of India quoted Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Nepal Singh as saying.
The infected persons, reportedly, have no severe symptoms and all of them have been kept in home isolation.
A health department official said that a massive sampling campaign is underway to check the spread of the virus. Officials said most of the patients are found asymptomatic and sampling of such patients is being conducted door-to-door.
Health officials also said that radiology centres have been alerted. Health awareness programmes are also being conducted in affected areas.
What is Zika virus?
Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that spreads through the bite of an infected Aedes species of mosquito, which bites during the day. Symptoms of this disease are mild fever, rashes, conjunctivitis, muscle, and joint pain, and headache.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Aedes mosquitoes usually bite during the day, peaking during early morning and late afternoon or evening.
First discovered in 1947, the mosquito-borne virus Zika virus reached epidemic proportions in Brazil in 2015, when thousands of babies were born with microcephaly, a disorder that causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains.