Bengaluru: Health experts in the city have raised alarm over the threat posed by mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has wreaked havoc in Brazil and other South American countries, and is spreading to other parts of the world.
“Aedes mosquito is the main vector for the transmission of Zika virus the disease is more virulent than dengue and chikungunya,” explains Dr Shashidhar Buggi, Director of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS).
He warned that the city was very much vulnerable to the virus and adequate measures need to be taken. “Bengaluru is vulnerable because being a IT hub and it has so many people travelling to different countries. This increases the risk of contracting the virus. Hence, surveillance would play a crucial role in tackling any outbreak,” Dr Buggi said.
It may be recalled that in May 2014, the city face a similar threat following the detection of a suspected cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the city. This forced the Karnataka Health Ministry to take aggressive steps to tackle the disease, including screening of passengers coming from West Asian countries to KIA.
Since the disease can neither be prevented nor treated, travellers need to stay away from mosquito bites. “The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the disease bites all day long and hence people need to apply repellent and not let their guard down,” Dr Buggi warned.
As for preventing the virus from spreading he said, “Since people respond differently to different diseases, we need to be prepared accordingly and any unusual manifestation should be diagnosed and the sample should be immediately send the samples to NIV.”
This relatively new mosquito-borne virus is already raised worldwide concern because of an alarming connection to a neurological birth disorder and the rapid spread of the virus. Hence prevention is the best bet for the IT city.
What is Zika?
The Zika virus is a flavivirus, part of the same family that causes yellow fever, chikungunya and dengue. But unlike some of those viruses, there is no vaccine to prevent Zika or medicine to treat the infection. The virus is transmitted when an Aedes mosquito bites a person with an active infection and then spreads the virus to others. These people then become carriers.
Symptoms
About one in five people infected with Zika virus become ill (develop Zika). The most common symptoms are fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis (red eyes). Other symptoms include muscle pain and headache. The incubation period (the time from exposure to symptoms) for Zika virus is not known, but is likely to be a few days to a week. There is mounting evidence that Zika can harm fetuses. A number of pregnant women who contracted Zika in Brazil have given birth to babies with microcephaly, a condition that stops babies' heads from reaching full size. In 2014 there were 146 cases and so far 46 babies have died.
