Zika in India: Gujarat taking preventive measures to check spread of virus

WHO had on last Friday confirmed the first case of Zika virus infection in Ahmedabad

In the wake of three cases of Zika virus being reported in Gujarat, the state goverment on Sunday assured the citizens by saying that the cases were old and those afflicted by the diseases were cured. It added that the state was taking preventive measures against the spread of the disease and that there have been no reports of new cases in the reagion so far. 

World Health Organisation (WHO) had on last Friday (May 26) confirmed India’s first case of Zika virus outbreak in Ahmedabad. It had reported three cases, two of them related to two preganant ladies who had gone through tests in January.

However, briefing mediapersons on Sunday, J N Singh, chief secretary, Government of Gujarat said: “There is nothing serious as of now. These were isolated cases that had come but are old and cured now. We want to assure people that due care has been taken to check the spread of Zika virus after the first detection of the case. In fact, both the pregnant women whose blood samples tests had revealed the virus have given birth to healthy babies.”

As per WHO, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare-Government of India had reported three laboratory-confirmed cases of Zika virus disease in Bapunagar area in Gujarat's Ahmedabad district.

Among the 34,233 human samples and 12,647 mosquito samples tested for presence of Zika virus by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), close to 500 mosquitos samples were collected from the Bapunagar area and all of them tested negative for Zika.

Howver, a routine laboratory surveillance at the BJ Medical College detected a confirmed case of Zika virus through the RT-PCR test. Two additional cases, have been identified through the Acute Febrile Illness (AFI) and the Antenatal clinic (ANC) surveillance.

However, according to Singh, intensified surveillance and preventive actions were taken in Bapunagar and other areas in January.

“Health Department has taken all required steps for the prevention of Zika virus,” he said while adding that teams from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) were deputed for fever surveillance and source reduction activities. State authorities received help from 140 multi-purpose health workers (MPHWs) to carry out the measures. 

According to the AMC, a house-to-house campaign has also been organised to make households aware of indoor fogging, anti-larval activity and other health issues. Meanwhile, an advisory for screening pregnant women with fever has also been issued to all districts corporations and hospitals. State authorities further assured that over 90 blood samples collected by the corporation gave negative results for any kind of virus infection.

Zika fever is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes that also transmit diseases like dengue and chikungunya. Zika fever, which was reported for the first time in 1970, has surfaced in 67 countries, according to WHO.

Maximum number of cases have been reported from Brazil and Puerto Rico, among other South American countries. About 80 per cent of patients infected with Zika virus are asymptomatic. 

The major clinical symptoms are fever, joint pain, muscle pain, red eyes, rashes on the body and headache. Citing available data, AMC stated that Zika patients were not known to require hospitalisation nor was mortality reported. Requiring only symptomatic treatment and rest, the self-limiting Zika fever is not known to have any specific treatment or medicine available.

Earlier, J P Gupta, commissioner of health, medical services & medical education in Gujarat, confirmed the development saying that the random samples taken in the Bapunagar area tested negative. He added that cuurently the state is collecting and testing samples across Ahmedabad and laboratories have been alerted about the same. However, no alert has been issued at the airport so far, and passengers are not being screened at Ahmedabad airport for now.

As part of the state government's campaign of making Gujarat 'malaria-free' by 2022, AMC has launched a drive wherein over 1,500 health workers would be deployed to check mosquito-breeding.  Under the drive, state health authorities plans to check more than 1.5 million households, office spaces, commercial buildings and institutions, among others across the city for prevalence of mosquito breeding sites over the next fortnight or so.