A day after confirmation of three positive cases of Zika virus infection in Ahmedabad by World Health Organization (WHO), the State Government has quickly come in action.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that his Government has taken all precautions to deal with the situation. According to Rupani these cases came to light a long time ago and the Government had taken strict actions to ensure that the virus didn’t spread.
“There is no need to panic. All three were isolated case (no danger of epidemic),” said the State chief secretary in a press conference on Sunday and added that on November 9, 2016 one case of Zika virus was found in a 34-year-old pregnant woman during delivering a child.
“We sent her blood samples to Pune for tests as her blood samples tested negative for malaria and chikungunya. later on, her report came with positive for Zika virus from Pune after five days. By the time, the woman delivered a normal baby. Promptly, the authority conducted survey and took 93 blood samples and out of them a 64-year-old male patient tested positive for Zika virus,” said Singh, adding that after around a couple of months a 22-year-old woman was found positive for the virus.
As per the State Health Department’s assessment, all these three cases were isolated, he said. As all three cases were reported from Bapunagar area of Ahmedabad, the State Government intensified surveillance in the area and preventive actions were also taken, he claimed.
According to Singh, immediately 25,500 houses and 1.25 lakh people were covered in a dedicated survey during February 10 to 16 this year on Zika virus and 94 blood samples were collected which were found negative
for malaria, dengue and chickengunya for further testing in the area.
Moreover, a workshop was also organised on Zika virus for physicians of medical colleges and district epidemic medical officers across the Gujarat in February this year. These officials later on trained those who are working at Primary Health Centres as well as community health centres. Even laboratory technicians and microbiologists were also trained.