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Uttar Pradesh: 3, including 2 more IAF officers, test positive for Zika
Of the three new cases, two are IAF personnel and one is a family member of one of the infected personnel.
Two Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel and a civilian were tested positive for zika virus disease in Kanpur on Saturday, taking the tally in the district to four, Uttar Pradesh health officials said, adding that the state now has the second highest number of cases after Kerala, where 90 cases have been confirmed so far.
Of the three new cases, two are IAF personnel and one is a family member of one of the infected personnel. Their reports came in on Saturday evening from King George’s Medical University (KGMU), Lucknow.
Confirming the new cases, Kanpur district magistrate Vishakh G Iyer said, “The health department had sent 500 samples of IAF personnel, their family members and people living in a radius of two km of IAF station to KGMU on Thursday. Three of these samples tested positive.”
The new cases have come a week after the first case of zika virus in Uttar Pradesh was reported in Kanpur on October 23, when an IAF warrant officer’s sample tested positive.
According to health experts, zika virus disease is caused by virus transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes, which bite during the day time. Symptoms of the disease are generally mild and include fever, rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain and malaise or headache.
While the source of the infection in Kanpur has not yet been traced, a senior health official said that the storage facility between hangars seven and eight at the IAF station has emerged as an area of interest. Specialists from the Centre and the state are camping in the city for about a week.
“Three of the infected IAF personnel were working in hangars seven and eight and may have contracted the infection,” said a senior health official requesting anonymity. The health authorities believe this storage facility at the IAF station could be the possible breeding ground.
In the first case, the IAF warrant officer was diagnosed with fever and admitted in 7 Air Force Hospital. When his condition did not improve, doctors at the hospital sent his samples for tests on October 20, on suspicion that he might have contracted a vector-borne disease.
Twenty-two contacts of the IAF warrant officer had tested negative. The reports of subsequent samples, around 250, had also come negative.
However, the fresh cases have added to the concerns of the health department, which has increased the area of screening. According to health officials, the department has decided that samples from as far as Adarsh Nagar and Shyam Nagar localities, where three infected people lived, would be screened. Earlier, the main focus was on Pardevanpurwa, the IAF station and localities within its one-km radius.
Iyer said that pregnant women living at the IAF station and other localities were the main priority for the health department. “We have asked the IAF to share the details of such women, their samples will be taken and tested in Lucknow,” he said.
The Zika virus is known to affect the baby’s head in the womb, said health experts.
Kanpur’s chief medical officer Dr Nepal Singh said the health department has formed containment clusters—each consisting of 400 houses. The health department teams are doing rigorous screening, source reduction, anti-larva spray and identification of people who are sick, Singh added.
