A 17-year-old boy of Shastri Nagar area in Jaipur district has tested positive for Zika virus, said Dr VK Mathur, the director of public health department. This is the second positive case of Zika virus in the area in less than a fortnight. The first case was reported on September 21.
“We sent samples of suspected cases to National Institute of Virology, Pune, and one of them has tested positive for Zika,” Dr Mathur said. The confirmation from the NIV came on Monday evening, he added.
Sawai Man Singh Medical College principal Dr US Agarwal said eight more samples of suspected cases have been sent to the NIV Pune and the results are awaited.
Six Zika cases have been confirmed in India to date by the Union health ministry surveillance network – three from Gujarat in 2017, one from Tamil Nadu in February and two from Rajasthan in September this year.
Zika surveillance was set up in 2016, when World Health Organisation declared Zika an outbreak.
“There is a high-level team of experts on ground, monitoring the situation closely. These cases were mild infections and recovered on their own. There has been no case of microcephaly reported due to Zika so far anywhere from the country,” said a senior health ministry official, requesting anonymity.
