Zika virus cases rise to 51 in Jaipur

Ten more people on Saturday detected with Zika virus in Jaipur raising the total count to 51 cases in the last three weeks.

Of the total 51 people, who have tested positive for Zika virus, 11 are pregnant women. After Shastri Nagar area, Zika virus has been detected in Sindhi camp areas with three students residing at Rajput hostel in neighbouring have tested positive. The first case had surfaced on September 22.

According to the Additional Chief Secretary Medical and Health Veenu Gupta, 30 patients are now better and recovered from the infection. Moreover, around 200 pregnant women, who were kept on regular monitoring are declared risk free by experts.

The state health department has also issued an advisory for pregnant women staying outside Shastri Nagar not to visit the area. A control room has been started at the National Centre for Disease Control to monitor the situation. The number of monitoring teams in Jaipur has been increased from 50 to 170,

Also, a special isolation ward has been created at the Hira Bagh Training Centre to treat the patients.

National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR) team is also camping in the affected Shastri Nagar and Sindhi Camp has collected more than 2000 larvae and 500 mosquitoes for testing in the laboratories.

As far as awareness in the affected areas is concerned, NIMR teams have sensitised people of the area about mosquitoes causing diseases in the area. Moreover, the Jaipur Municipal Corporation has partially begun ant-larva fogging in affected parts of Jaipur.

In India, the first outbreak was reported in Ahmedabad in January 2017 and the second was reported in Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri district in July that year.