The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confir-med three cases of Zika virus, including a pregnant woman, reported from Gujarat’s Ahmedabad, the first in the country. All the cases are from the Bapunagar area of the city.
“The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) reported three laboratory-confirmed cases of Zika virus disease in Bapunagar area in Ahmedabad district,” the global health body said in a statement.
However, the WHO did not recommend any travel or trade restriction to India based on the current information available.
According to the statement, a laboratory-confirmed case of Zika virus disease through RT-PCR test at BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad. This was further confirmed at the national reference laboratory at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune on January 4 this year. WHO said two additional cases were then identified through the Acute Febrile Illness (AFI) and the Antenatal clinic (ANC) surveillance.
Between February 10-16 in 2016, a total 93 blood samples were collected at BJ Medical College (BJMC) out of which one sample from a 64-year-old male had tested positive for Zika virus.
“This was the first Zika positive case reported through AFI surveillance from Gujarat,” the statement said.
Also, a 34-year-old woman delivered a baby at BJMC on November 9 and during her stay in the hospital she developed a low-grade fever after delivery. The woman had no history of fever during pregnancy and had no history of travel for three months. A sample from the patient was referred to the Viral Research and Diagnostic laboratory (VRDl) for dengue testing and was found to be positive for the virus.
“She was discharged after one week (on 16 November, 2016). The sample was re-confirmed as Zika virus positive at NIV,” the statement said.
Besides, a 22-year-old pregnant woman in her 37th week of pregnancy was tested positive for Zika virus at the same hospital.
The Indian Government had confirmed these cases and had sent the details of the patients to the WHO in March after which the global health body’s confirmation in these cases came on Saturday, a Ministry official said.
As per the WHO statement, immediately after the cases were reported, the Health Ministry had shared the national guidelines and action plan on Zika virus disease with the States to prevent an outbreak of the disease.