Kerala has woken up to what has become a whammy to the ongoing health crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The state is now prepared for battling the deadliest outbreak - the Zika virus, which poses an equal scale of menace that of novel coronavirus. Though the Zika outbreak is not new for India, the spread at the time of crisis had worried the Kerala state health authorities and they had begun taking measures to tackle the outbreak.

Kerala has reported its first case of the Zika virus for the year on Thursday when a 24-year-old pregnant woman was diagnosed with it. The total number of cases of the Zika virus in Kerala had gone to 14 on Friday after 13 more cases were reported. As the outbreak is predicted to increase, the state has been brought under a high alert.  The 24-year-old pregnant woman was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Trivandrum. 

The state health ministry has said that 19 samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune and of 19, 13 had returned positive for Zika on Friday. Kerala Health Minister Veena George has said that an action plan had been drawn to control the spread of Zika and she had appealed to the pregnant women to get tested themselves in case they have a fever. Earlier on Friday, Union Health Ministry said that it had instructed a six-member team to reach Kerala and monitor the situation in the state. 

While addressing a press briefing, Joint Secretary of the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said, "There are some Zika cases which have been reported from Kerala. To monitor the situation and to aid the state government, a six-member team consisting of public health experts, vector-borne disease experts, and doctors from AIIMS has been issued instructions to reach there (Kerala) and support the state government in terms of managing Zika." 

According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Zika is mostly spread through the bite of a particular mosquito called Aedes and can also be sexually transmitted. The symptoms of the virus include fever, muscle and joint pain, skin rashes, and conjunctivitis. Pregnant women are more susceptible to the virus and can transmit the infection to their newborns which would cause a child to get infected with the diseases like Guillain-Barre syndrome. 

It can also cause birth defects such as microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with a smaller head due to abnormalities in brain development. The health officials in Kerala said that the 24-year-old pregnant woman had shown symptoms including fever, headache, and rashes before being admitted to a hospital. She had delivered a baby safely on Wednesday. The state health department has deployed health teams to the areas to monitor any further cases. 

Besides Kerala, its neighbouring states are on high alert in tackling the outbreak amid battling the pandemic. With the view of keeping the outbreak at bay, the Tamil Nadu health department has directed all the districts- particularly the districts that share the borders with Kerala to intensify surveillance. The state health department is taking measures to prevent the state from the outbreak as there is no vaccine for the Zika virus. 

Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said, "We are staying vigilant and we have instructed the district health authorities to take measures and ensure the tanks and sumps are closed." These mosquitoes would reproduce on the waterbeds that are open and unused. According to the state's directorate of public health, Tamil Nadu has tested more than 400 people for the Zika infection since 2017, but no case was tested positive. 

The district administrations at the borders have begun the surveillance drive on the influx of people from Kerala and taking measures to mitigate the spread. Kerala Health Minister Veena George has on Friday said that the ongoing monsoon rains have turned the affected areas into a breeding ground for the mosquitoes. India had witnessed the Zika outbreak in 2017 and 2018, with hundreds of cases reported in western Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. It is the first time Kerala has reported the case. 

The virus was first discovered in monkeys in Uganda's Zika forest in 1947 and has caused several outbreaks across the world. The virus was first identified in humans in 1952 and the first outbreak happened in 2007 on the Island of Yap in the pacific. Brazil had witnessed a major outbreak in 2015. The virus, which is caused by the Aedes mosquito that also causes dengue, can be transmitted to other humans through blood transfusion or sex.  

On the front of prevention, it is important to reduce the reproduction of mosquitoes and reducing contact between mosquitoes and people. To prevent mosquito breeding, it's imperative to clean the water surfaces. People should empty, clean, and cover the water containers including buckets, unused tanks, flower pots, and tires. Apart from emptying these containers, it is important to spray insecticides on them to prevent the growth of mosquitoes.