Two more infected with zika in Kerala, tally climbs to 21

Thiruvananthapuram: Two more persons tested positive for vector-borne Zika virus on Tuesday in Kerala taking the total number of infected to 21, said the state health ministry

Thiruvananthapuram: Two more persons tested positive for vector-borne Zika virus on Tuesday in Kerala taking the total number of infected to 21, said the state health ministry. Both cases were reported from Thiruvananthapuram.

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State health minister Veena George has asked people to be vigilant and take part in the ongoing vector-control measures. The central team camping in the state also visited some of the affected areas.

“We have already started a campaign to clean water-logging areas and all will have to chip in to contain it. We will do everything possible to check its spread,” the minister said, adding that samples are being tested at three medical college hospitals in the state. A special Zika ward has also been set up in Thiruvananthapuram medical college. Earlier, the state was sending samples to National Institute of Virology in Pune.

The first case was reported from Parasala in Thiruvananthapuram district on July 7 wherein a 24-year-old pregnant woman tested positive. Later, she gave birth to a baby and both are stable now. In one week, cases went up to 21. Later, the Union health ministry had rushed a team of experts and they are right now camping in the state. Grappling with high caseload of Covid-19, the latest outbreak has got the health machinery concerned.

But medical experts said unlike Covid-19, Zika is not a major threat and it can be controlled with effective vector control programmes. The virus is spread mostly through mosquitoes but it can also be transmitted through sex and fatality rate among patients is very low and only one in five develops symptoms, they said.

e main symptoms of the disease, first identified in monkeys in Uganda in 1947 and among humans in Nigeria in 1954, include joint pain, fever and headache. In May 2015, it was reported in Brazil, where it spread rapidly. The virus can cause shrunken brain in children and a rare auto-immune disease called Guillain-Barre syndrome, experts said, adding it was first reported in the country in Gujarat in 2017.