The pay ward building at the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH), Kozhikode, has been converted into a Nipah isolation block against the backdrop of the death of a 12-year-old boy from Chathamangalam due to Nipah infection on Sunday.
“Those who test positive for the virus will be shifted to the ground floor. Symptomatic patients and others will be accommodated on the first and second floors. An intensive care unit too has been set aside for the treatment,” said Health Minister Veena George at a high-level meeting here.
A point-of-care testing facility under the National Institute of Virology (NIV) is being set up at the MCH by Monday morning. If any positive cases are reported, the samples will be sent to the NIV, Pune, and results will be made available in 12 hours. Nine intensive care units have been set up at the MCH. One of them is already functioning.
The Minister said that adequate medicines and other equipment were available for treatment in the district. An expert team from the Alappuzha unit of the NIV would reach the MCH. A high-level bio-safety lab would soon be set up there. A control room has been set up at the Government Guest House. People may contact it at 0495-2382500 and 0495-2382800.
Restrictions have been imposed within a three-km radius of the boy’s house at Pazhoor. Contact tracing will be intensified for another week, until the incubation period of the infection gets over.
Meanwhile, private hospitals in Kozhikode district have been told to keep a watch on patients with encephalitis symptoms and those with pulmonary infections, along with unnatural deaths. This was conveyed to representatives of the hospitals at a meeting convened by Ms. George.
The Minister said that since the incubation period, the time between the virus entering a body and the manifestation of symptoms of the infection, was one week, health personnel should be on high alert. None of the symptoms of Nipah infection should be ignored. Ms. George directed the hospitals to train their staff, including housekeeping workers, in using personal protection equipment.
