New Delhi, July 9, (dpa/GNA) – India’s southern state of Kerala has detected its first case of the Zika virus – a mosquito-borne viral infection – and sounded an alert across all its districts, officials said on Friday.
State health services director VR Raju confirmed one case and said there were 13 other suspected infections. The state is already reeling under a surge of Covid-19 cases, accounting for nearly a third of India’s 43,393 infections on Friday.
A widespread epidemic of the Zika virus originated in Brazil and swept through South and North America prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it an Public Health Emergency of International Concern in 2016.
India reported a Zika outbreak in the western state of Gujarat in 2017.
“We have declared a state-wide alert and are intensifying efforts to control the Zika infections,” Raju told dpa over the phone.
The virus was detected in the blood samples of a 24-year-old pregnant woman in state capital Thiruvananthapuram. Doctors said the condition of the woman, who delivered on Wednesday, is stable.
Zika is spread by through Aedes species of mosquito, that is found in high density in the state, but can also be transmitted through sexual intercourse.
It has been linked with neurological diseases and birth defects such as microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with a smaller head due to abnormalities in brain development.
The Zika virus was first identified over 70 years ago in rhesus macaque monkeys in Uganda and was later found in humans in 1952. In most cases, infection goes unnoticed, or people experience some degree of fever, joint pains or rashes.
GNA