Docs laud Kerala's efforts to contain outbreak of Nipah
New Delhi: Prominent doctors of Delhi on Sunday lauded the efforts of health officials of Kerala in containing the deadly Nipah virus and stressed the need to improve the management of viral infections in critical care, here at the annual National Symposium on Viral Infection in Critical Care in Gurugram district of Haryana.
Dr Anoop Kumar, a Critical Care specialist from a private hospital in Calicut, Kerala, who first detected the Zootonic virus of Nipah in infected patients, was also present at the symposium.
"The patient had symptoms of acute encephalitis, but the blood pressure was rising and pulse rate swinging, instead of going down. The condition was quickly developing, and we had to act fast.
"So when we were sure that the condition was unforeseen, we first separated him from other patients and sent his samples for examination so that suitable treatment could be undertaken. It all happened very fast. Time is crucial in such situations," he said.
"The quick action to segregate the affected persons from other patients was a crucial move to stop the spread of Nipah virus in Kerala.
The virus is now contained but had the Nipah-affected patients shared space with other patients for a longer
duration, it would have been difficult to handle the outbreak," said Dr Tapesh Bansal, organising secretary of the conference, Head of Department, Critical Care and Senior Consultant, Paras Hospitals Gurgaon.
Dr Randeep Gulleria, Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was amongst the attendees at the conference and appreciated the timely intervention of the Centre.
"The field of infectious and viral diseases is evolving very fast. The global climate change has allowed new viruses to increase while those existing have developed resistance to medicines and antidotes. Both these scenarios pose a huge challenge to the health practitioners who are fighting on two fronts," said Dr Neeraj Bishnoi, Facility Director at Paras Hospitals Gurugram.
