Five-year-old girl in Raichur is Karnataka’s first Zika case

RAICHUR/BENGALURU : Karnataka’s first case of Zika virus has been reported from a village in Raichur district’s Manvi taluk. The case of the patient, a five-year-old girl, was processed on December 5 and reported as ‘positive’ on December 8, but a subsequent test recorded her as Zika-negative, by when she was cured and discharged from hospital.

However, what has baffled the health authorities is that neither the little girl nor her five-member family had any travel history, and they lived in an isolated place in Kolichya village coming under the limits of Neermanvi Primary Health Centre of Manvi taluk (Raichur district). Interestingly, blood and serum samples of all five members of the girl’s family which were also sent for testing, were found to be negative for Zika virus.

Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Monday confirmed to the media in Bengaluru that the girl was tested positive for Zika virus. He said Zika virus cases have been earlier reported from Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra a few months ago, but this girl is the first case in Karnataka.

“The case came to light when the girl’s serum collected for Dengue and Chikungunya was sent to the Virology lab in Pune for testing. We usually send 10% of such samples for testing. Of the three specimen samples we sent, the five-year-old girl’s has come positive. The case was processed on December 5 and reported on December 8,” Dr Sudhakar said, adding that the state government was monitoring the situation with caution.  

He said that there was no cause for panic and that the health department will soon be issuing detailed guidelines to tackle Zika virus. Raichur District Health Officer Dr Surendra Babu said two teams of experts from Bengaluru and Kolkata have reached the village to conduct some more tests on the girl, who has recovered. Dr Babu said the girl was suffering from fever and was admitted to Sindhanur Taluk Hospital. 

Raichur girl treated at VIMS

She was referred to Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) as the doctors at Sindhanur Taluk Hospital of Raichur district suspected it to be Dengue fever. 

The VIMS doctors treated the girl, and as a precautionary measure, sent her blood and serum samples to National Institute of Virology, Pune. As the girl was cured, she was discharged from the hospital. Two tests just days apart showed the first to be positive, while the second came negative. Zika is spread through the bites of infected Aedes species mosquitoes, A aegypti and A albopictus.