UP: Six New Zika Cases in Kanpur, Tally Reaches 10

The Zika Virus cases in Kanpur rose to10 after six more people tested positive for the virus on Sunday. A report by King George's Medical University (KGMU) lab of Lucknow confirmed the new infections, including four women and two men. One of the new cases is a pregnant woman, who has been put under round-the-clock observation.

Medical teams have taken samples of 645 suspected symptomatic people from the Zika virus-affected Chakeri area of the city. These samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune and the KGMU lab in Lucknow.

Kanpur Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Nepal Singh, said, "All the infected persons are from outside the Air Force Station area. They are civilians living in the Harjinder Nagar Lal Bangla, Poonam Talkies, Lalkurti Cantt, Ompurwa and Kali Bari areas of Chakeri. Anti-larva spray is being done by medical and civic teams across all the affected pockets."

Singh further said that all patients are asymptomatic at the moment, and their families have been advised home quarantine until the completion of the investigation report. The administration has included 400 houses in its containment zone where continuous spraying of fogging and anti-larva is being done.

"Since the confirmation of the state's first Zika virus case on October 23, the testing of samples at a large scale is being carried out to remove the risk of any further spread. So far, a total of 645 samples have been sent to KGMU. Of them, 253 samples have been collected from people with symptoms of fever, 103 samples are of pregnant women," the official statement said.

"Out of 507 samples tested, only nine people have tested positive for Zika virus while one patient had tested positive from the samples that were sent to NIV Pune. A total of 10 patients have been found infected with the Zika virus so far in Kanpur district of the state," the statement added.

The first case of the Zika virus in Kanpur was confirmed on October 23 when a warrant officer in the Indian Air Force (IAF) was diagnosed with the infection. After that, three more IAF personnel had tested positive on October 30, taking the tally to four. All four IAF personnel are being treated at the Air Force Hospital in Kanpur.