State govt to set up centres of National Institute of Virology

Kolkata: The state government is going to set up centres in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology, Pune.

The decision has been taken after it has been found that cases of acute encephalitis has gone down after blood samples were sent to the national institutes like National Institute of Virology, Pune and

NIMBioS and reports received from them.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said as it takes three to four days to receive reports of blood samples from these institutes.

With setting up of the centres here, the state government will get reports of blood samples of affected persons within 24 hours.

Director of health service Biswaranjan Satpathy said in this connection in the presence of the Chief Minister during the press conference in Nabanna that laboratories here can be set up with their collaboration and they will be providing the technical support.

He stated that around 1,000 blood samples were sent for tests to the institutions.

Earlier, the reasons behind acute encephalitis were unknown.

But now, we have come to know the reason behind encephalitis and it was found that 25 percent of the

acute encephalitis cases were for a particular reason for which there is proper medication and it helped in saving lives of the same percentage of people.

It has become possible only because of getting the reports of the blood samples test.

The Chief Minister directed senior officials of the Health department to circulate the message among all hospitals.

The Mamata Banerjee-government has taken several steps so that common people get better treatment in state-run hospitals.

In Thursday's meeting, she also directed the senior officials to engage Asha workers to create awareness among common people so that they do not get panicked due to unknown fever and get necessary treatment.