Unnao fourth district in Uttar Pradesh to report Zika case

KANPUR: After Kanpur, Lucknow and Kannauj, now Unnao district reported its first case of Zika virus on Tuesday.
Health department officials said that the 35-year-old patient is from Unnao’s Mishra Colony, Shuklaganj and travels daily to Kanpur where he works at a thread factory in Jajmau, Lal Bangla area where 130 Zika virus cases have been reported so far.
A high alert has been sounded in the Unnao district.A team of doctors has reached the house of the infected person and taken all sorts of preventive measures.
Unnao chief medical officer Dr Satyaprakash has issued an order to increase the sample for the investigation of Zika in Shuklaganj. The affected patient has been sent to the dengue ward of the Unnao district hospital.
Dr VK Gupta, nodal officer of Infectious Disease Control Unit, said that on November 13, the patient’s sample was taken in Kanpur and he was examined there itself. The report on Tuesday confirmed that he was infected with Zika.
“We received a report from Kanpur that a resident of our district has tested positive for Zika virus. His samples were procured in Kanpur on November 13 and today he was declared positive. He has been shifted to the dengue ward of the Unnao district hospital,” said the officer.
As soon as the report of Zika patients came, the health department officials were on their toes.
Dr Ravi Yadav of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) and Dr VK Singh reached Shuklaganj. Accompanied by health supervisor Pradeep Diwakar, the doctors then zeroed in on the house of the infected.
The patient was hurriedly transported in an ambulance to the District hospital’s dengue ward.
The team of the Unnao Nagar Nigam carried out a massive fogging exercise in and around the residence of the infected person and the malaria department is spraying anti -larva chemicals.
Meanwhile, 130 Zika virus cases have been reported in Kanpur so far.