Two suspected cases of deadly Nipah virus have been reported in West Bengal. Official sources of the Health Department gave this information on Monday. The cases were identified during lab tests conducted at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL), AIIMS Kalyani, while the infection was confirmed on January 11.
Addressing a press conference, Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty said, ‘Both nurses are being treated in the same hospital where they were working. The state government is keeping a close eye on the situation. Health department officials have held meetings with doctors and medical experts and a state government team also visited the hospital on Monday morning. He said that efforts are being made to find out how the two nurses got infected with the Nipah virus. Along with this, all the people who came in contact with him in recent days are being identified and investigated. It has been reported that the two nurses had gone to Bardhaman a few days ago and investigations are being conducted in those areas as well.
The Chief Secretary assured that strict vigilance is being taken to ensure that no one else gets infected by coming in contact with them. Currently, contact tracing and investigation is being done in North 24 Parganas, East Bardhaman and Nadia districts. It also includes identification of the locations where both nurses worked and the areas they traveled to. The state government has also activated three helpline numbers for emergencies. Currently, both patients are nurses and are admitted to the Critical Care Unit (CCU) of a private hospital in North 24 Parganas district.
According to sources in the district health administration, these two nurses, aged 25 and 27 years, hail from East Bardhaman and East Medinipur districts respectively and have been admitted to the CCU since January 6. A senior official of the West Bengal Health Department said that the situation is being continuously monitored. He said, ‘Nipah virus is a zoonotic disease, the death rate of which is quite high and it is suspected to spread rapidly. Considering this, the state health department is handling the situation with utmost priority. All necessary preventive and surveillance measures have been implemented.’
A National Joint Disaster Response Team has also been deployed to assist the state government. The team includes experts from Kolkata-based All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Pune’s National Institute of Virology (NIV), Chennai’s National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), AIIMS Kalyani and the Department of Wildlife under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
Sources in the health department said that the recent travel of one of the suspected cases was in Ghugragachi area of Nadia district, which is located near the India-Bangladesh border. Both patients initially had symptoms such as severe headache, sore throat, fever, altered consciousness and seizures. Earlier, she was admitted to government health centers in her respective districts, but when her condition worsened, she was transferred to the same private hospital in Barasat, where she was working. The Nipah virus has been confirmed in the cerebrospinal fluid and throat swab samples of both patients in AIIMS Kalyani’s laboratory.