According to official data of the state health department till Wednesday, out of almost 100 Zika positive patients in the city, 24 alone are from the Rajput hostel.
At a time when Rajasthan capital Jaipur is experiencing its biggest outbreak of Zika virus, negligence of state and district health department has reportedly led to a dozen inmates of the Rajput Hostel get infected. These students were lodged at the Rajput Hostel near Sindhi Camp area. Initially, only one student was affected by Zika virus, but laxity in screening, survey and containment made the infection spread to other inmates of the hostel.
According to official data of the state health department till Wednesday, out of almost 100 Zika positive patients in the city, 24 alone are from the Rajput hostel. 10 of the patients have been kept in isolation ward set up at Heera Bagh, while 14 are quarantined at the hostel itself. The hostel housed around 125 students when the zika cases were reported.
"Rest of the 'non-infected' students were shifted to Rajput Sabha Bhawan. Some of these relocated students however have left for their hometowns for the upcoming festive season," Giriraj Singh Lotwara, president of Shri Rajput Sabha said.
"Health department's response was lethargic to the Zika-positive cases found at the hostel," an official at SMS Medical college said on account of anonymity. "From the college, information was given on September 27 that a 19-year-old residing at the hostel, who was suffering from fever for four days has been tested positive for Zika virus during the routine surveillance, but screening at the hostel started 2 weeks later. In the meanwhile, the other students were exposed to the virus," he added.
Initially, only 40 samples were collected from the hostel on October 10, and preventive measures like anti-larvae activities, fogging and isolation were started. Rest of the students were tested later on October 15. As per experts, this late response by the state health department, is solely responsible for Zika virus spread in hostel.
An affected student while talking to DNA said that he was not contacted by any health official for any kind of counselling after he tested positive for the virus.
Official Infected
A joint director of the state health department has tested Zika positive. He is a resident of Vidyadhar Nagar, near Shastri Nagar where the first case was reported.
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