NEW DELHI: The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported incidents of Zika virus in Gujarat in January, but India’s health ministry believes the mosquito-borne disease has been contained, The Hindu said on Saturday.
It said the health ministry has confirmed that three cases of Zika virus incidents were reported from Ahmedabad in January. The information was made public five months after the cases were reported as the WHO published a member state report on their website, the paper said.
The health ministry maintains that the outbreak has been contained, the paper said. “We have been keeping a close watch and no other case has been reported since January. We are conducting tests routinely and the situation is under control,” said Arun Panda, additional secretary in the ministry.
According to the WHO report, routine laboratory surveillance detected a confirmed case at B.J. Medical College. The case was further confirmed by the National Institute of Virology in Pune on Jan 4. Two additional cases were identified through the surveillance. One of the patients was a 34-year-old pregnant woman, who delivered a healthy child on Nov 9, 2016.
Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2017
