The mosquito-borne virus can cause serious illness in newborns.
At least 89 people, including 17 children, have been infected with the Zika virus in Kanpur, the most populous city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
According to Dr. Nepal Singh, the chief medical officer of Kanpur, the state is experiencing a real Zika outbreak.
India’s first case was registered in Gujarat in 2017. The mosquito-borne virus has been linked to cases of microcephaly in children and a rare autoimmune disease called Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).
In addition to mosquitoes, the virus can be sexually transmitted.
This is the first known outbreak of Zika fever in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
After the first case of the virus was registered in Kanpur on October 23, the number of infected people, including a pregnant woman, has steadily increased.
The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, acknowledged that the infection was spreading rapidly and ordered local officials to step up sanitary measures. “Given the seriousness of this disease, special precautions are required,” he noted, “so constant monitoring of each patient’s health is necessary.”
This flavivirus, transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, causes a disease in humans whose characteristic symptoms are a slight increase in temperature, rash, conjunctivitis, fatigue, headache and joint pain, fever, and joint swelling.
The virus was first detected in monkeys in Uganda in 1947.
The first documented case of human infection occurred in Nigeria in 1954, and since then outbreaks of the disease have been reported in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Island countries.
However, in May 2015, the virus reached Brazil, where it began to spread rapidly, and there are no existing treatments for Zika.
The only thing you can do is try to avoid being bitten by the mosquitoes that carry the virus.
At the same time, deaths are rare, and only one in five infected individuals shows symptoms of the disease.
