KOLKATA: The National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, has confirmed Nipah, a viral disease with high mortality, in both samples sent from Bengal. The samples were taken from two nurses of a Barasat hospital whose condition remain critical. A house staff at a Burdwan hospital, who came in close contact with one of the nurses, has developed mild fever, sources said. Officials are planning to bring the doctor to Beliaghata ID hospital. Earlier, samples from the two nurses, who are being treated at the Barasat hospital where they are employed, tested positive for Nipah at AIIMS Kalyani and were sent to Pune for re-confirmation.
The health department has identified over 120 people who came in close contact with the two nurses, one male and the other female, recently. All of them are in home isolation now. Efforts are on to identify more close contacts. “Contact tracing is on. The 120-odd close contacts identified so far include family members of the nurses and healthcare workers,” said a health department official.The healthcare personnel include nurses and doctors from the Barasat hospital and two hospitals in Katwa and Burdwan, where the female nurse was treated before being shifted to Barasat.Sources in the East Burdwan health department said 10 individuals from Katwa, including two doctors, and 38 from Burdwan, including eight doctors, are in home isolation.Apart from doctors, those under observation include nurses, ambulance drivers and other healthcare providers. Samples of some of the close contacts have been sent to AIIMS Kalyani.Sources said both patients are on ventilation, while the female nurse is in coma. “Doctors at the Barasat hospital are following all protocols. But the concern is the severity and high mortality of the infection,” said a health official.While the source of the infection is still unclear, sources indicated that the nurses might have contracted the virus from a colleague at the Barasat hospital. A healthcare worker at the hospital died a few weeks ago after showing symptoms of Nipah.“It is difficult to pinpoint the source of infection. It could be human-to-human transmission or they might have got the virus from contaminated fruits or fresh date palm sap,” an official said.The patients have no significant travel history outside the state, but they had gone home, to East Midnapore and Katwa, days before being taken ill. Health officials said many migrant workers from the state tend to come back home around this time, indicating another possibility of human-to-human transmission.“During winter, people in rural areas tend to drink raw date palm juice, which can be a potential source of infection as fruit bats feed on date palm,” said the source. A panel is coordinating with a National Joint Outbreak Response Team sent by the Union health ministry to monitor the situation.(With inputs from Mohammad Asif)
