Six more Zika virus cases in UP's Kanpur, tally reaches 10

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Six more persons, all civilians, have tested positive for the Zika virus in the Chakeri area of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The total number of Zika virus cases in the city has now touched 10, of which the six persons tested positive for the infection on late Sunday evening. A report by King George's Medical University (KGMU) lab of Lucknow on Sunday, has found Zika virus infection in four women, including one pregnant woman and two men.

Kanpur District Magistrate, Vishak G. Iyer, along with a team of Health and Civic departments rushed to the spot to take stock of the area. Medical teams have so far collected samples of 645 suspected symptomatic, suffering of fever and pregnant women from Zika virus-affected pockets in the Chakeri area of the city. Their samples have been sent to KGMU lab in Lucknow and National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. G.S Bajpai, Uttar Pradesh's Communicable Diseases department Director, said a special ward has been set up in Kanshi Ram hospital where Zika virus patients from Lucknow have been admitted. Patients in the ward have been placed inside mosquito nets.

Kanpur Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Nepal Singh said, "All the infected persons are from outside the Air Force Station area. They are civilians living in the Harjinder Nagar Lal Bangla, Poonam Talkies, Lalkurti Cantt, Ompurwa and Kali Bari areas of Chakeri. Anti-larva spray is being done by medical and civic teams across all the affected pockets." All six patients have been kept in home quarantine and their treatment has started, he added.

"All patients are asymptomatic. Their families have also been advised to stay at home till the investigation report comes. Around 400 houses have been made a containment area around the houses of the infected persons. Continuous spraying of fogging and anti-larva is being done. The isolation of the family members will end once their cross test declares them negative," Singh said.

On Saturday, three more persons, including two Air Force staffers, were found infected with Zika virus. After detection of the first infected case on October 23, the Centre had dispatched a high-level multi-disciplinary team comprising an entomologist, public health specialists and gynaecologist from the National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme, National Centre for Disease Control and Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed the state administration on high alert in view of the rising Zika virus cases.

According to government spokesman, the state Health department has been carrying out the extensive exercise of mass-scale sanitisation, state-wide surveillance drives, spraying of anti-larva chemicals, fogging and cleanliness drives. The Health workers have been conducting door-to-door visits to identify patients with viral fever, vector-borne diseases and with other symptoms.

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