Concern: Evidence of Zika virus found in many states of the country, Zika, Dengue, and Chikungunya found in the same sample

Scientists have made a big disclosure through a study regarding the spread of the Zika virus. Scientists have found evidence related to the spread of the Zika virus in many states of the country, based on which scientists have asked the states to immediately increase surveillance at the ground level.

Different centers of the country under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) based in New Delhi have found out that the Zika virus is present in not one or two but many parts of the country. Along with this infection, the role of dengue and chikungunya is also being seen as helpful.

That is, apart from Zika in the same patient, the effect of dengue or chikungunya is also being found and when they were examined, it was found that these patients have a secondary infection which was not confirmed till now in the country. In this study published in the medical journal Frontiers, scientists have clearly said that in the recent past, a serious situation of the Zika virus has been seen in India. Last year, many cases were also reported from different states.

The virus was found in 67 out of 1475 patients

ICMR's senior scientist Dr. Nivedita Gupta said that between May and October last year, after collecting samples of 1475 patients from 13 states of the country, the investigation was done. During this, Zika virus was confirmed in 67 patients, dengue in 121, and Chikungunya in 10 patients. All cases of the Zika virus were symptomatic.

Of these, 84 percent of patients had a fever and 78 percent had symptoms of red rash emerging on the body. Dr. Gupta said a shocking situation for us came when in some samples we saw Zika-Dengue, Zika-Chikungunya, and Dengue-Chikungunya and Zika all three together. If this spread further increases in the coming days, then there can be a lot of worrying situations for the country.

Asian variant found in patients

Dr. Pragya Yadav of the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, said, "After the completion of the investigation when the genome sequencing of the infected samples was done, we came to know that the Asian variant of Zika virus is only in the patients. Whereas we have found all four types of serotypes of dengue. Usually, one or two serotypes are spread in a season, but now it can be said that different serotype of dengue is spreading in different parts of the country.

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