Karnataka confirmed its first ever case of Zika virus after a five-year-old girl from Raichur tested positive. Her samples were tested in a laboratory in Pune. She has been advised to take precaution, news agency ANI reported.
Assuring that the situation is under control, Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said, “This is the first case in the state and the government is monitoring the situation very carefully. Our department is well prepared to handle it.”
What is Zika virus?
According to the World Health organisation (WHO), the Zika virus is a mosquito-borne virus, transmitted mainly by Aedes mosquitoes, which mostly bite during day time.
People infected with the Zika virus show symptoms such as rashes, fever, conjunctivitis, muscle pain, joint pain and headache, which usually last two to seven days.
The Zika virus has been making a comeback in the country, with a 67-year-old man testing positive for it last month. He was diagnosed with Zika in mid-November after he visited a hospital in Pune complaining of fever, cough, joint pain and fatigue. The man has had no complications since then and is currently in stable condition.
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{{/usCountry}}Zika virus was also reported in Kerala last year, when a 24-year-old pregnant woman in her third trimester tested positive for it via an RT-PCR test. She was a resident of Trivandrum district. She later went on to deliver a healthy baby and was reportedly in good health. However, 13 people including hospital staff and other patients at the same hospital later tested positive for Zika.
Later in July 2021, 70 of 590 blood samples collected in Kerala also tested positive for the virus. Maharashtra also reported its first case of Zika in July-end of the same year.
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Zika was first identified in a Rhesus macaque monkey in Uganda in 1947, after which there have been several outbreaks in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands.
(With inputs from ANI)