Zika virus (ZIKV) infection was confirmed in one more person in Thiruvananthapuram, taking the total number of cases reported so far in Kerala to 19. All lab-confirmed cases are from the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation limits, though an alert has been sounded across the State.
The latest case was confirmed in a 73-year-old woman, a resident of Puthenthopu in the capital, who had come to the private hospital from where the first case of ZIKV was confirmed.
Almost all of the lab-confirmed cases of ZIKV so far are epidemiologically linked to this private hospital and a chunk of the cases were reported amongst the hospital staff themselves, health officials said.
Central team visit
Members of the Central team on Monday visited the hospital and premises as part of their investigation. “A lot of construction activity is going on in the area. Water stagnation and heavy breeding of mosquitoes were detected in many spots. Since the hospital caters to a lot of people from outside the State and country, it is possible that someone with the virus had come to the hospital and the infection was then spread in-house by the Aedes mosquitoes,” one official who accompanied the Central team said.
People who came to the hospital with infants for immunisation and who were in the waiting area are also among those who got infected. “The immediate plan of action suggested is to launch total vector control measures within a 3-km radius of the hospital. Aedes mosquitoes are omnipresent in the city and hence containment measures will have to be launched in those areas where the infected hospital staff are staying. Apart from routine screening of all pregnant women with any fever symptoms, a serological surveillance study is also being planned,” he added.
Epidemiologists have suggested that any action plan should be taken forward under the assumption that the virus would have established itself in the urban locales some time ago.
Symptoms reported
Going by the reports of district health officials, fever with rashes, arthralgia and red eye was being reported from several wards in the Corporation in the past four or five months. None had taken it beyond establishing that it was neither dengue nor chikungunya.
“How long has the virus been circulating here and the extent of its geographical spread are crucial variables, to which we have no clear answers. Systematic vector surveillance should be launched in all districts, now that we have one more flavivirus to watch out for, one which can affect the next generation,” a public health expert said.
