Team Herald
PANJIM: A 20-year old male from Kerala has been kept in ‘isolation’ at Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) as he is suspected to be suffering from the Nipah virus. The authorities, however, said there is no need to panic as the infection has not yet been confirmed.
The patient who was passing through Goa by a train from Kerala and was heading to Uttar Pradesh saw his health condition deteriorating when he reached Tivim railway station on Monday morning. After he fell unconscious at the railway station, he was initially referred to Asilo hospital in Mapusa and from there to GMC, where he is currently undergoing treatment.
A three-member team of doctors is examining the youth, who has been kept in ward 147. The final reports of his blood test, confirming the exact cause of his ill health, will be out in the next two days. The blood samples have been sent to Pune for examination.
Speaking to Herald, GMC Medical Superintendent (MS) Dr Shivanand Bandekar said the patient is currently being treated as a case of viral encephalitis and not Nipah. “In both cases, the symptoms are same but we cannot reach to a conclusion of it being Nipah virus infection at this stage. The blood samples have been sent to Pune for examination and its report will be out in next two days. We would be in a position to tell you in two days,” he said.
He said the symptoms in both cases are brain fever, muscle pain, fever, fatigue, etc. “Let us not try and create panic in people by calling it a Nipah case at this stage. Let us wait for the report,” he said. The patient’s identity was not disclosed by GMCH.
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said the man is under observation and it was not yet confirmed if he was infected with the deadly virus. “There is no need to panic,” he stated.
A team of doctors from the medicine section comprising Dr Adwi, Dr Anura and Dr Ragoba are examining the patient, who is in a drowsy condition.
Chief Surveillance Officer, Directorate of Health Services, Dr Utkarsh Betodkar, said that the patient was travelling alone on a train from Kerala but took ill when he reached Tivim railway station. He too said that there is no need to panic as it is not a confirmed case of Nipah.
Betodkar also ruled out the need to alert the passengers who were travelling with him in the train and added, “No advisory has been issued by the State government about the virus.”
The State has already formed a committee headed by the State Health Secretary to draw a protocol to deal with the Nipah virus cases in the State.
The virus has so far claimed 13 lives in Kerala. There is no vaccine against the virus which was first identified in 1998 in Kampung Sungai Nipah, Malaysia.
The outbreak of the Nipah virus infection, a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in animals and humans, is suspected to be from an unused well at Perambra in Kerala’s Kozhikode district which was infested with bats. The natural host of the virus is believed to be fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family, Pteropus genus.
