Ahmedabad Zika infections may have been hushed up due to Vibrant Gujarat Summit: Report

After it was reported that the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation was unaware of India’s first three cases of Zika virus infection being reported from Ahmedabad, it turns out that the Zika infection being ignored could be a result of something more sinister than ignorance.

A report in The Hindu said that the Vibrant Gujarat Summit “was a factor” in the decision to hush up news about the Zika infections.

The report said that because a travel advisory during the time the Vibrant Gujarat Summit was being held could have ruined the summit, the advisory was not issued. The Hindu said that two of its sources, one of whom is highly placed in the health ministry, confirmed this.

On the other hand, the Gujarat government had earlier denied charges of covering up the cases of Zika infections. “Since they were just isolated cases — not connected to each other — and there was no outbreak, we didn’t inform the civic body about the specific samples testing positive for Zika virus to avoid panic,” NDTV quoted health secretary JP Gupta as saying.

The mosquito-borne virus was detected in one man and two women of the industrial suburb of Bapunagar area in Ahmedabad. First, it was detected in a 64-year-old man in February 2016, next in a 34-year-old new mother in November and the last in a 22-year-old pregnant mother in January 2017.

On 26 May, the WHO published a report which said: “On 15 May, 2017, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, reported three laboratory-confirmed cases of Zika virus disease in Bapunagar area, Ahmedabad district, Gujarat. The routine laboratory surveillance detected a laboratory-confirmed case of Zika virus disease through RT-PCR test at (state government-run) BJ Medical College.”

Despite the discovery, the state government did not alert the city municipal corporation.

Bhavin Joshi, medical officer of health at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), had told IANS: “We do not have any intimation from the ministry or the state government in this matter. No new cases or abnormalities have been reported in the recent past.”

With inputs from IANS