News Analysis India

Tag: UP zika virus

  • CM Adityanath visits Zika-hit Kanpur, reviews situation

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW:  With Zika infection tally breaching the 100-mark, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday visited the worst-hit Kanpur and spoke to family members of the patients besides reviewing the containment efforts.

    As many as 106 people have been diagnosed with the viral infection in the state so far with first case coming to light at Chakeri Air Force Station in Kanpur on October 23. The CM assured the people of Kanpur of taking all the measures to stop the spread of the virus. He said that of the 106 positive cases detected so far, 17 patients have already recovered. Five municipal wards of the city are in the grip of the virus, said Yogi.

    He urged Kanpur residents not to panic as the district administration, health department and municipal authorities have been strategically working to increase surveillance, sanitisation and investigation in the affected areas.

    “Our team is identifying symptomatic people and providing them with medicine kits,” he said, adding that the remaining patients would recover soon. A senior health official in Kanpur said around 100 teams are deployed in the city for source-reduction, 100 teams for home-sampling and additional 15 rapid response teams (RRT) to check the virus’ spread. “The source-detection teams visited 3,777 houses on Tuesday taking the cumulative tally to 40,238,” he said. The official further said relatives of the patients were under the surveillance.

  • Kanpur’s Zika virus case tally reaches 10, focus on halting mosquito breeding

    By Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh has so far reported 10 cases of the Zika virus with six fresh cases of the mosquito-borne virus being reported from Kanpur district. 

    While three of these cases are Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel, the remaining seven, including six reported recently, are all civilians including a pregnant woman, who is under round-the-clock observation.

    According to state government sources, a total of 645 samples have been sent to King George Medical University (KGMU) so far. 253 samples among them have been collected from people with symptoms of fever and 103 samples are of pregnant women. Out of 507 samples tested, merely 9 people have tested positive for Zika virus, while 1 patient had tested positive from the samples that were sent to NIV Pune. 

    READ HERE | Zika virus explained: How is it spread & why pregnant women should take extra caution?

    Heightening preventive measures to eliminate cases of Zika virus in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government will further intensify comprehensive surveillance and implement stringent containment curbs on the breeding of mosquitoes. 

    “The Health Department must ensure strict surveillance to check the spread of Zika virus and should undertake frequent and extensive door-to-door sanitisation and fogging drives to stop mosquito breeding. People should be made aware of preventive measures and must be encouraged to maintain cleanliness,” instructed the Chief Minister in a high-level meeting with senior officials. 

    The state health department has been carrying out mass-scale sanitisation drives, state-wide surveillance, spraying of anti-larva chemicals, and fogging to curtail the spread. The health workers have been paying door-to-door visits to identify patients with viral fever, vector-borne diseases and other symptoms. Under the drive, over 39,897 households have been covered and more than 1,61,535 people have been made aware of the preventive measures to remove mosquito breeding sites. 

    It is noteworthy that since the confirmation of the state’s first case of Zika virus on October 22, the Uttar Pradesh government is carrying out strict testing of samples at a large scale to remove the risk of any further spread at KGMU, Lucknow. 

    Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that spreads through the bite of an infected Aedes species of mosquito named Aedes aegypti. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Aedes mosquitoes usually bite during the day, peaking during early morning and late afternoon or evening. This is the same mosquito that transmits dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.

    For the majority of people, Zika virus infection is not a serious issue. But it can be very dangerous among pregnant women. The infection can cause microcephaly (a brain disability condition) or other conditions called congenital Zika syndrome.