Health dept opens up on zika after centre nudge

ON RECORD In presence of 4member central team, state health dept officials say 29 people have tested positive for ZVD in Jaipur

Eighteen days after the outbreak of zika virus disease (ZVD) in Jaipur, the state health department on Tuesday announced that 29 people have tested positive for the virus in Shastri Nagar area of the city from September 22 to October 8.

The health department’s revelation comes following the centre confirmed 22 cases of zika virus in Jaipur on Monday.

The first case of ZVD in Jaipur was detected on September 21 after the National Institute of Virology of Pune confirmed that the samples collected form an elderly woman of Shastri Nagar area have tested positive. The woman’s samples were sent to the Pune institute by the SMS hospital, where she was admitted for treatment.

After the confirmation of the zika virus case, the state health department came into action and ordered a door-to-door survey in the area, following which more cases have come to light.

Addressing a press conference and media sensitisation workshop, additional chief secretary of the health department Veenu Gupta said 29 zika virus positive cases have been detected in the Shastri Nagar area, of which three were pregnant women.

She said zika virus infection is not fatal, but in pregnant women it can affect the foetus. “It is little risky during the first three months of the pregnancy,” Gupta said.

She said a door-to-door survey was conducted in 26,000 houses from September 22 to October 8 and 28,700 breeding sites were identified. The health department teams destroyed 9,000 breeding sites with larvae after the survey.

During the survey, 1,442 general patients and 1,118 pregnant women were found with fever and samples of 450 patients and 160 pregnant women with fever were taken. “Luckily, the three pregnant women who tested zika virus positive are safe, as one of the mothers have delivered the baby, the second will deliver in a day or two and the third women is five-month pregnant,” she said.

When asked why the department is talking to media now after the centre has declared 22 zika virus positive cases in Jaipur, Gupta said, “I know the media is little annoyed for not communicating the details, but we were also not aware about this new virus and the first priority of the department was to contain the zika virus in Shastri Nagar.”

The department has asked media to support the government on the issue. Now, the department has identified the spokesperson to give timely information about the new cases to the media and maintain transparency.

“State has already started taking prompt multi-dimensional action and situation has also been reviewed in two high-level meetings. The department was following the guidelines especially the micro plan for containing local transmission of zika virus as told by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,” Gupta said.

Affected area has been divided into eight zones with subdivisional officers, doctors, vector-borne disease consultants and post graduate doctors from preventive social medicine department have been assigned special duties.

The centre has sanctioned ₹25 lakh for kits, ₹46 lakh for purchasing insecticides and labour charges for domestic breeding checkers and ₹49 lakh for information, education and communication (IEC) campaign.

“Fogging is being done in the affected area. Along with, awareness

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campaigns have been started on radio and television as well as on social media. The teams have been increased from 50 to 170,” she said.

The four-member team from centre was also present during the media briefing.

SMS HOSPITAL TO CONDUCT TESTS ON ZIKA

Expressing faith in the Sawai Man Singh hospital, which earlier sent the zika virus cases to the National Institute of Virology of Pune for further confirmation after their detection at the hospital, the central team has authorised the hospital to conduct the tests for zika virus cases, Gupta said.

She said diagnostic testing of zika virus is done on reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and the state has five laboratories to test zika virus at hospitals attached to government medical colleges in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jhalawar, Udaipur and Kota.

She said special ward to isolate zika positive cases has been made at Health and Family Welfare Training Centre in Jaipur.