Kanpur:Thirty more Zika cases have been reported in Kanpur district, taking the tally to 66. The 30 new cases have been reported from the tests conducted at the virology lab of the King George's Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow and National Institute of Virology in Pune. This is the highest single-day jump in infections since the first case of the virus was reported in the city on October 23.
Of the new cases, three of the infected are women and 27 are men. Till Wednesday, the number of women, including four girls, was 18 and with three more infected, the number of women patients have now escalated to 21. Kanpur chief medical officer Dr Nepal Singh said Thursday's confirmation increases the total cases in the district to 66 which includes 45 males and 21 females.
Dr Singh said the National Institute for Virology Pune has confirmed the fresh cases. The samples were sent for testing three days ago. Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that spreads through the bite of an infected Aedes species of mosquito named Aedes aegypti.
According to the World Health Organisation, the Aedes mosquitoes usually bite during the day, peaking during early morning and late afternoon or evening. The states's first Zika virus case was reported from the Indian Air Force station area in Kanpur on October 23 when a warrant officer tested positive for the infection. Subsequently, three more cases were also discovered from the IAF station area.
The health department marked an area within a two-km radius of the IAF station in an effort to localise the Zika virus. However, new patients were found in the Lal Kurti, Mangla Vihar, Tiwaripur, Ompurwa, Jagaipurwa, Shyam Nagar localities, which are in the cantonment area but border the main Kanpur city.