Daily Times

KARACHI: Despite the existing threat of Zika virus in Pakistan, health authorities have not taken steps to initiate the testing for Zika virus in all donated blood supply. Unscreened Zika-blood supply can expose pregnant women and fetus to the virus, health experts warned.

According to a recent international study, Pakistan is among the vulnerable countries at the risk to Zika virus due to its limited health care and poor environmental conditions.

“Blood donor screening with a laboratory test, is vital for identifying Zika-infected donors. Through screening, blood donations that test positive for Zika virus can be removed from the blood supply,” Prof Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi told Daily Times.

“Blood screening of possible Zika-infected donors will help ensure that safe blood is available for all individuals, including pregnant women, who might need transfusion,” explains Dr Kazmi.

“But what is happening in allover country is that but we haven’t initiated screening for Zika virus. Pregnant women should be provided Zika tested blood failing which the virus infection during pregnancy can cause microcephaly and other severe brain defects,” she added.

Microcephaly is a birth defect in which a baby’s head becomes smaller than expected when compared to babies of the same sex and age. Babies with microcephaly often have smaller brains that might not have been developed properly.

Zika virus is primarily transmitted to people through the bite of an infected mosquito from the Aedes genus, mainly Aedes aegypti. This is the same mosquito that transmits dengue and chikungunya. Other mode of transmission such as blood transfusion is also possible.

In May this year, a World Health Organization (WHO) mission who visited Karachi to investigate the Chikungunya outbreak in the city warned Sindh health department to act timely to thwart threat of Zika virus.

Dr Essa’s Laboratory and Diagnostic Centre, a private facility, started testing of Zika soon after the conformation of the chikungunya in December 2016.

“We started testing Zika because there is high possibility that its cases may emerge in areas like Pakistan where there are increasing number of dengue and chikungunya patients,” said Dr Sadaf Akber, a pathologist working at the Laboratory.

According to pathologist, till now there was no detection of Zika during investigation at the Laboratory.

During last five months, the numbers of investigation cases remained very low. “The lack of investigation can be linked with lack of awareness,” Dr Sadaf added.

Published in Daily Times, July 11^th , 2017.