Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 10 (UNI): A six-member expert team from the Centre will arrive in Kerala on Saturday to assess the Zika virus situation and assist the State Health Department to contain the spread of the virus.
As the state reported 14 Zika virus positive cases till date, the State Health Department took several steps to control the spread of the disease, sources said.
A six-member expert team from AIIMS will arrive in Kerala to help the State Government in its efforts to stop further spread of the virus.
Zika virus disease is caused by a virus transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes, which bite during the day.
Symptoms are generally mild and include fever, rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache. Symptoms typically last for 2–7 days. Most people with Zika virus infection do not develop symptoms.
Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in monkeys. It was later identified in humans in 1952 in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania.
Outbreaks of Zika virus disease have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. From the 1960s to 1980s, rare sporadic cases of human infections were found across Africa and Asia, typically accompanied by mild illness.
The first recorded outbreak of Zika virus disease was reported from the Island of Yap (Federated States of Micronesia) in 2007. This was followed by a large outbreak of Zika virus infection in French Polynesia in 2013 and other countries and territories in the Pacific.
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