The Kerala Health Department stepped up its alert in Kozhikode district where the Nipah virus (NiV) has made a second coming after an interval of a few days as situation grew serious following the death of three persons in 24 hours due to virus infection. A total of 17 persons have died of NiV infection so far in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts.
The department asked the doctors and other staff of the Government Taluk Hospital at Blaussery, Kozhikode to go on a week’s leave after two persons died there due to infection and a doctor had to undergo treatment with symptoms. The instruction was issued on the basis of the assumption that a person who had died the other day had contracted the virus during treatment there.
“There is no need for anxiety but precautions should be taken,” Health Minister KK Shailaja said in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. She said persons who had come into contact with those who had contracted the virus should be cautious. “That we have been able to intervene effectively in Stage One of the virus spread has produced good results,” the Minister added.
Indications of the virus making a second coming in the affected areas of Kozhikode district when three persons died within a span of 24 hours on Wednesday and Thursday just when the Health Department was feeling relieved as no fresh cases had been detected in the first three days of the week and no death had been reported.
Stating that about 1,000 people had been put under observation, Shailaja said those who had come into contact with Nipah patients and thought that they had symptoms of infection should approach the Health authorities. “This is necessary for saving their lives and those of others,” she added. A total of 11 persons were undergoing treatment with NiV symptoms on Friday.
Though students in the State returned to schools on Friday after the two-month summer vacation, the schools in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts, where 17 people had died of virus infection, will reopen only on June 5 and 6 respectively. Schools under Thalassery Education District in Kannur, lying adjacent to Kozhikode district, also would be reopening only on June 6.
At the same time, the Kozhikode District Collector on Friday submitted a report to the Kerala High Court saying that the proceedings at the district court should be suspended for a period of ten days because of apprehensions following the death of the court’s senior superintendent TP Madhusoodanan on Wednesday due to Nipah virus infection.
Though the number of death following Nipah symptoms stood at 17, only 16 of them were confirmed to have been contracted the virus. The blood and body fluids of Sabith (26), the first person to die with symptoms, had not been collected for analyses as the death had occurred much before suspicions about the presence of the virus had come up.