While the presence of Nipah virus has been confirmed in the blood and body fluid samples of two persons who died due to viral fever in the past fortnight, two more are suspected to have died in similar circumstances in Kozhikode district of Kerala.
District Collector U.V. Jose told The Hindu on Sunday that the laboratory results from National Virology Institute, Pune, had confirmed that the deceased were infected with the virus. District Medical Officer V. Jayasree gave the names of those who died on Sunday as Ismail of Koottalida and Velayudhan of Kolathur. However, it was yet to be confirmed whether they were infected with the virus, she said.
Three persons from a family had died due to virus encephalitis and mycarditis in the past two weeks. Nine others, including some of their family members, and those who had interacted with them, are under treatment at government and private hospitals.
Five are undergoing treatment at the intensive care unit of the Institute of Chest Disease at the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, and one at the isolation ward of the hospital. Two others are undergoing treatment at the Baby Memorial Hospital, Kozhikode, and one at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi.
Fever clinics
Fever clinics and special wards will be set up in private and government hospitals and a seven-member task force has been formed to monitor the overall activities. This was decided at a meeting chaired by the Collector at the civil station here on Sunday.
R.L. Saritha, Director, Health Services, told the media that a single window system would be put in place to coordinate the works and a senior doctor in the department of emergency medicine at the Government Medical College Hospital would be in charge of it. A control room has been opened at the District Medical Officer's office and the phone number is 0495-2376063. A training programme would be held for doctors in both government and private hospitals in association with the Indian Medical Association. Apart from senior health officials and medical college staff, representatives of private hospitals, senior Ayurveda and homoeo doctors, and officials from the district disaster management authority attended the meeting.
