Zika virus
Mosquito-borne Zika virus continues to create havoc in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur, with 89 people testing positive for the disease. Out of the total infected people, 55 are men and 34 are women. Among these, 23 are those having age below 21 years.
Health teams had collected blood samples of 525 people on Thursday, Friday and Saturday which were sent to the virology lab of the King George's Medical University in Lucknow and the National Institute of Virology in Pune for testing.
On Saturday, 13 people had tested positive for the Zika virus. One case was also reported from the neighbouring Kannauj district.
The first case of the Zika virus was reported in Kanpur on October 23 when a warrant officer of the IAF tested positive for the infection.
To check the spread of the disease, health teams are undertaking sanitisation programmes, including anti-larvae spraying and identifying fever patients, screening seriously ill people, and pregnant women.
So far, a total of 3,283 samples have been collected from the city and sent to the virology lab of KGMU in Lucknow and NIV in Pune for testing. A high alert has been sounded in the periphery of hangars of the IAF station, official said.
Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that spreads through the bite of an infected Aedes species of mosquito, which bites during the day. Symptoms of this disease are mild fever, rashes, conjunctivitis, muscle, and joint pain, and headache.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Aedes mosquitoes usually bite during the day, peaking during early morning and late afternoon or evening.
First discovered in 1947, the mosquito-borne virus Zika virus reached epidemic proportions in Brazil in 2015, when thousands of babies were born with microcephaly, a disorder that causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains.
(with inputs from agencies)
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