In a jolt to the Maharashtra health authorities grapplingwith the Covid-19 pandemic, the first-ever case of Zika virus has been detectedin a woman from Belsar in Pune district, officials said here late on Saturday.
The health department assured that the 50-year-oldpatient has fully recovered from the Zika virus infection and nobody in herfamily of three have displayed any symptoms.
The woman, who had shown symptoms since July 15, wasdiagnosed positive with Zika virus and also Chikungunya on Friday, spreadthrough mosquitos.
As the alarm bells set ringing, a health team comprisingstate surveillance officer Pradeep Awate, assistant director Kamalapurkar,state entomologist Mahendra Jagtap and others rushed to the village and studiedthe situation on Saturday.
They held emergency meetings with the Belsar sarpanch andgram panchayat members, the local health authorities, health workers, and otherstakeholders and apprised them about the precautions to be taken if any otherZika patients are detected.
Around 40 samples were collected from the village with apopulation of around 3,500, of which 25 tested positive for Chikungunya and 3for dengue, and the sole woman's sample was positive for the Zika virus.
The Zika virus is caused by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito,and 80 percent of the patients do not get any symptoms, while the rest maysuffer from fever, body-ache, itching eyes, acne, and joint pains, and pregnantwomen could suffer a miscarriage if they contract it.
The health department has now directed all the concernedofficials to take adequate precautionary measures while surveying for Covid-19,Zika and other insect-borne diseases and not to neglect any cases.