Nipah scare: Fourth patient admitted to ID Hospital

Kolkata: Uttam Bhowmik, a resident of Ghatal in West Midnapore who had recently visited Kerala, has been admitted to the Beliaghata ID Hospital after he complained of flu-like symptoms. This is the fourth instance where a patient has secured admission at the hospital with unknown fever.

According to his family members, the victim had been suffering from fever, accompanied by headache and vomiting, for the past few days. With the scare of Nipah virus doing a round across the state, the family members were not ready to take any risk and admitted him to the hospital.

Meanwhile, it may be mentioned here that a soldier, Seenu Prasad (27), who was posted at Fort William, died at the Command Hospital on May 25. He had gone to his native place in Kerala on a leave for about a month and joined service on May 13, after his arrival in the city. The state government is yet to confirm if his death was due to the Nipah virus or if there was any other reason.

According to a Defence spokesperson, the victim's body fluids were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune, which is the only agency in the country to certify whether it was a case of Nipah virus or not.

It may be mentioned here that the state Health department has already issued an alert to all the state-run hospitals, asking them to take prompt action and report to the department if any patient is admitted with suspected symptoms of Nipah virus. The hospital authorities in the districts are referring the patients to the Beliaghata ID Hospital, as the latter is specially equipped to deal with such patients.

In the past one week, three patients from various parts of Murshidabad were admitted to the Beligahta ID Hospital with flu-like symptoms. The victims were all contractual labourers, who had visited Kerala at

some point of time in the

recent past.

Beliaghata ID Hospital authorities have, however, confirmed that the first victim to take admission was not affected by the Nipah virus. All the victims have been kept at the isolation ward of the hospital.

The scare has spread as many patients have already died in Kerala after being affected by the Nipah virus. The city doctors have advised people not to consume half-eaten fruits, after it was found that the first patient in Kerala might have eaten mangoes that had residues of fruit bat saliva. The doctors have advised that people must be cautious while having cut fruits.

Fruit bats are among the carriers of the virus, which is named after Kampung Sungai Nipah, a Malaysian village that first witnessed an outbreak in 1998. In case of a Nipah virus attack, the mortality rate is much higher than other disease. The tests are done only at the National Institute of Virology.

Niranjan Barman, a carpenter from Falakata in the North Dinajpur district was admitted on Wednesday evening with symptoms similar to Nipah virus infection. He used to work in Kerala. "Unless lab tests are done and we get the results, it cannot be labelled as a Nipah infection," stated Pralay Acharya, CMOH, Darjeeling.