AEDES THE MENACE

The latest outbreaks of Zika fever in India indicate that mosquito-borne diseases are fast spreading to new populations and regions. They are also no longer restricted to the monsoon season. Aedes mosquitoes that are responsible for transmitting a range of diseases are particularly becoming invasive in a rapidly warming world. An analysis by VIVEK MISHRA and VIBHA VARSHNEY in Delhi with NEETU SINGH in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh

- VIVEK MISHRA and VIBHA VARSHNEY

ON NOVEMBER 17, Anita Shrivastava gave birth to a girl at Kashiram Hospital in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. “I was quite relieved when the doctor said the girl was healthy. The past three weeks have been extremely stressful,” she says. The reason for her anxiety is Zika virus. On October 30, Shrivastava, 32, was diagnosed with an infection that causes mild symptoms like fever, fatigue, headache, and rashes. The virus, which primarily spreads through infected mosquitoes, rarely causes death but can be passed from an expectant mother to her fetus and cause birth defects like microcephaly (a condition where a baby’s head is much smaller than expected) and other severe congenital brain defects.

A day after the birth, a state government medical response team under pediatrician Raj Bahadur, reached Shrivastava’s home to check on the child and said she looked fine. “Physically, nothing seems wrong with the girl, but we will have to wait to be certain,” Bahadur says.

The first case of Zika was reported from Kanpur on October 23, and till November 23, the state had reported 146 confirmed cases, including nine pregnant women. All the cases have been reported from a few clusters in Kanpur (138 cases), Lucknow (six), Unnao, and Kannauj (one each). In Kanpur, all the cases have been reported in and around Jajmau, an industrial area with a large number of leather tanneries. Shrivastava, too, lives in the Tiwaripur locality of Jajmau. Saket Sharma, Nisha Pal, Sanjay Sharma, all living a few houses away from Shrivastava’s residence, have been diagnosed with Zika.