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Six IAF personnel among 25 new Zika cases in Kanpur, tally at 36
Kanpur district magistrate Vishak G said among the fresh cases, 14 are women while six IAF personnel have also contracted the infection.
Kanpur: Six Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel were among the 25 people who tested positive for zika virus in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur district on Wednesday, taking the number of infected persons to 36 in the district, officials from the state health department said.
Kanpur district magistrate Vishak G said among the fresh cases, 14 are women while six IAF personnel have also contracted the infection.
The DM said the health department had collected blood samples of 586 people on Sunday and sent them to Lucknow’s King George’s Medical University (KGMU) for testing. Twenty-five samples tested positive for Zika virus on Wednesday, he added.
The Uttar Pradesh health department on Monday sounded an alert across districts and intensified surveillance under its infectious disease control campaign to identify cases of infection, including Zika virus disease, in the early stages.
To check the spread of the disease and track its source, health teams have been pressed to undertake sanitisation programmes, including anti-larvae spraying, identification of fever patients, screening of seriously ill people and pregnant women. Health officials have been asked to strengthen surveillance and ensure door-to-door sampling and testing, senior health officials said.
“We advise locals not to panic regarding the sudden spurt in zika virus cases,” the DM said.
On Monday, Dr Vedvrat Singh, Uttar Pradesh director general of medical health, said, “We are conducting the infectious disease control campaign in the state and all health staff have been briefed about the zika virus cases and asked to keep a watch in their respective areas. Although, no other district other than Kanpur has reported zika virus cases till now.”
The first case of the zika virus in Kanpur was confirmed on October 23. An IAF warrant officer suffering from fever was admitted in the Air Force hospital where the doctors decided to go for further tests. His samples were sent to SGPGIMS (Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences) in Lucknow, where it was confirmed that he was infected with the zika virus.
The Union health ministry then sent a high-level multidisciplinary team to Uttar Pradesh to monitor the situation.
A high alert has been sounded in the periphery of hangars of the IAF station, said a senior health officer.
Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that spreads through the bite of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. According to the World Health Organisation, Aedes mosquitoes usually bite during the day, peaking during early morning and late afternoon or evening.
In normal course, the symptoms of the zika virus disease are mild and include fever, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain and rashes.
(With agency inputs)
