Palghar district is currently on alert as a 7-year-old girl was found infected with the Zika virus while seven other kids from the same village were infected with swine flu. The district health department is actively tracing, testing, and taking preventive measures. This is the second Zika case in Maharashtra after Pune.

As per state officials, the cases were reported in Jhai village near Shaskiya Ashram Shala. Palghar District Civil Surgeon Dr Sanjay Bodade said, “It is a tribal belt. We got complaints that children in the village are having health issues such as fever, headache, bodyache, so around 13 children were brought to the Dahanu sub-district hospital last Saturday and samples were sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune for testing. The report has come and according to that, a 7-year-old girl named Arya Boba is found infected with Zika. She is from a tribal family and there is no history of foreign visits.” Currently, all are admitted to the sub-district hospital.