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AHMEDABAD: As you read this, there are some 90,746 expectant mothers in Ahmedabad, most of them poor and living in slums, chawls and low income localities of the city which are the most vulnerable to the deadly Zika virus tranmitted by the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito. None of these healthy mothers want a baby with microcephaly. There are also some 99,746 children were born in these areas, between six and seven months old, who are vulnerable to Zika. Many of these 91,000 mothers-to-be are not even aware of the effects of the Zika virus.

The city of Varanasi on Wednesday began a wide-scale public information campaign about Zika.0

A lot of time has passed since November 14, 2016, when the state government discovered a Zika virus infection in an expectant mother in Bapunagar, but did not go public with it. In 2016, the Aedes aegypti mosquito was responsible for a massive spike in dengue and chikungunya cases.

Areas which have witnessed the most dengue and chikungunya cases have the most expectant mothers. For instance, Behrampura, which registered the maximum number of dengue cases, has 1,510 expectant mothers while Kubernagar has 977 expectant mothers. Bapunagar, the site of two Zika virus infections between November 2016 and February 2017, has the maximum number of expectant mothers, 1,600. The SP Stadium ward, which had one pregnant woman contracting Zika, has 1,044 expectant mothers.

Six months later, with two more Zika infection cases in January and February 2017, the government is yet print and disseminate handbooks or put up hoardings in Gujarati or even ask local ‘ASHA’ health workers to educate pregnant women in these areas about the disease and its effects. Most of this material has just been uploaded to the Gujarat health ministry website, which hardly any such women access.

“Our anti-vector activities are on in full swing across Gujarat. We have already issued an advisory to the Gujarat chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) a few days ago. Most of our advisories in Gujarati related to Zika virus have been uploaded on the website,” says state health commissioner J P Gupta.

