89 Zika Virus Cases Reported in India's Kanpur City

At least 89 people, including 17 children, tested positive for the Zika virus in a district in India's Kanpur city, media outlets reported on Monday.

Kanpur's chief medical officer, Dr. Nepal Singh, told Reuters there has been a surge in cases in the district.

This is the first outbreak of the virus in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh. The first case in Kanpur city was detected on 23 October and cases have since been on the rise, according to a state health official.

Accordingly, Singh affirmed that authorities had formed teams to increase surveillance of the outbreak and to contain its spread.

Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath noted that the infection was "spreading rapidly" in the city and instructed officials to speed up sanitisation work, according to news agency ANI.

"Considering the seriousness, special caution is required. The health of each patient should be continuously monitored," Adityanath said.

India reported its first confirmed cases of the Zika virus in Gujarat in 2017.

Notably, the mosquito-borne virus has been linked to shrunken brains in children and a rare auto-immune disease called Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Although the virus is mostly spread by mosquitoes, it can also be sexually transmitted.

Zika virus was first identified in monkeys in Uganda in 1947. The first human case was detected in Nigeria in 1954 and there have been further outbreaks in Africa, South East Asia and the Pacific Islands.

Deaths are rare and only one-in-five people infected is thought to develop symptoms that include mild fever, conjunctivitis (red, sore eyes), headache, joint pain, and a rash.