UP: High alert in Kanpur, 3 IAF personnel test positive for Zika virus
Three more people, all of whom are Indian Air Force personnel, have tested positive for Zika virus in Kanpur, taking their tally to four. District Magistrate Kanpur Visakh ji confirmed this, “With three news cases, the tally in the city has now gone up to four.”
The first case of the virus was also confirmed in IAF personnel on 23 October. However, 22 people, including family members, relatives and close contacts of the first case, had tested negative for the virus.
Later samples of 175 IAF personnel were sent for testing and the report on Saturday confirmed that three had tested positive.
A high alert has been sounded in the periphery of the Indian Air Force hangar in the Maintenance Command besides the nearby civilian areas including Pardiwanpurwa and Pokharpur areas regarding the mosquito-borne virus.
During an ongoing survey in Pardevanpurwa and Pokharpur areas, 74 teams of health department have collected samples of around 204 more people including 29 pregnant women and 85 Air Force personnel from 11,493 households to track the spread and source of Zika virus. Chakeri under the supervision of experts from Delhi and Lucknow.
Additional Director of Medical Health and Family Welfare, Kanpur Division, Dr GK Mishra said that all possible steps are being taken to contain the spread of the virus and aggressive testing is also underway.
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