Two Nipah virus cases have been detected in West Bengal, both involving nurses from a private hospital in Barasat. A state government team visited the hospital on Tuesday morning. Government is carrying out contact tracing in Nadia, Purba Burdhaman & North 24 Parganas.
Union Health Minister JP Nadda said, "Yesterday, on January 11th, two suspected cases of Nipah virus were found at the ICMR Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory in Kalyani... Coordinated action was immediately initiated to contain the outbreak. Upon receiving information about these cases last night, the Union Health Secretary discussed the situation with the Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary of Health of West Bengal. To provide assistance to West Bengal and to contain the outbreak, we immediately established a National Joint Outbreak Response Team. We have deployed a team with members from All India Institute of Health and Public Hygiene, Kolkata, National Institute of Virology, Pune, National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Kalyani, and Department of Wildlife, Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change to West Bengal. Our protocols for Nipah virus disease and communicable diseases have been shared with the state's Integrated Disease Surveillance Unit in accordance with central government guidelines. The National Centre for Disease Control and the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre have also been activated... I spoke to West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and asked her to instruct her team of experts to work closely with the Indian government team and put all their efforts into preventing this. They have assured me that they have activated the department..."
