WHO Confirms That Zika Virus Was Detected In Ahmedabad In 2016, But Gujarat Government Didn't Make It Public

India's first three cases of the Zika virus were reported between February 2016 and January 2017 in Ahmedabad, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in its disease outbreak bulletin released on Friday. It said the Centre confirmed the three cases, in two pregnant women and in an elderly man, on May 15, 2017.

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All cases were reported from Bapunagar here and the patients tested positive at the Gujarat government-run BJ Medical College (BJMC). Union minister of state for health Anupriya Patel, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha in March this year, had confirmed one Zika case in Ahmedabad.

However, the detection and confirmation of Zika cases weren't made public by the state government, apparently because it came in the run-up to the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investment Summit.

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Sources in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's health department claimed that no formal intimation of the detection of the virus was made by the state health department. This, even as the state-run BJMC confirmed the Zika virus in its own laboratory.

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Gujarat health commissioner J P Gupta told TOI on Saturday, "We confirm that Zika virus has a random presence in Ahmedabad. We cannot say if the virus was brought from outside or was indigenous."

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He added that the children of both the pregnant women were born without symptoms like microcephaly (abnormal shrinking of the head) associated with Zika, which had an outbreak in Brazil in early 2015. In February 2016, the WHO declared the outbreak as "public health emergency of international concern".

Reuters

The WHO bulletin said the first case was reported during a disease surveillance activity in Ahmedabad between February 10 and 16 last year. A 64-year old man with a mild fever over eight days was detected with Zika virus. The second case was detected at BJMC where a 34-year-old woman delivered a baby on November 9 last year.

"During her hospital stay, she developed a low-grade fever after the delivery. Her sample was sent to the laboratory at BJMC for dengue testing and found to be positive for Zika virus," said the bulletin. The sample was re-confirmed later as Zika virus-positive by the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune. The WHO stated that there was no history of fever during pregnancy and no history of travel for the past three months in the case.

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Reuters

The third case was confirmed during an antenatal clinic (ANC) surveillance between January 6 and 12 this year where a total of 111 blood samples were collected at BJMC. One sample from a 22-year-old woman in her 37th week of pregnancy was tested positive for Zika.

Gupta said Zika virus was detected as part of random sampling exercise undertaken by the health department last year. "Following this, we have launched a massive anti-mosquito drive in 2017 to reduce the population of vectors and control spread of malaria, dengue, chikungunya and Zika ¡ª all of which are spread through mosquitoes."

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Bhavin Joshi, the in-charge medical officer of health, told TOI, "We haven't yet received any confirmation or intimation from the state government or the central government regarding the detection of Zika virus in the city."

State health minister Shankar Chaudhary said there was no cause for panic. "Zika virus cases were reported last year. Major preventive drives for mosquito-bred illnesses have been ordered," he said.