AHMEDABAD: Just two days before the World Health Organization first informed of three Zika cases in the city on May 26, it had put the entire country in risk category 2, the same category as that of Brazil, which has experienced a major outbreak. Prior to the Ahmedabad Zika case announcements , since November 18, 2016, the country was kept in risk category 4, or considered low risk. The cases were detected between November 2016 and early February this year, but were reported to the WHO on May 15.

WHO’s risk category 2 clearly states that the area has “ongoing transmission” and that the area “may also experience an outbreak of Zika.” With these warnings clearly mentioned, no awareness activity in local Gujarati language seems to be taking place at the municipal corporation level in lower middle or economically weaker clusters which are most vulnerable. Except for a few information posters at for international visitors at the airport, Zika posters in Gujarati language including hoardings are absent from public places. Even as this information vacuum exists, the state government has allowed a large ‘Yoga Anushthan’ on June 21 at AEC-GMDC grounds where 5 lakh to 7 lakh participants will be visiting Ahmedabad, just during the onset of monsoons sparking further fears of a possible outbreak. When the Yoga event was announced on May 11, the state government did not even inform event organizers that three Zika cases had been detected. “Principally, Zika risk is determined according to altitude (height above sea level). Mosquitoes that spread Zika usually do not live at high altitudes, which is above 6,500 feet or 2,000 meters,” said a senior health official of Civil Hospital. “After learning of the Ahmedabad cases, WHO has categorized India among 20 countries including Brazil, Bangladesh, Indonesia, which are in category 2 risk,” said the official.

