Nipah virus? entry point not clear

[Snowy Owl]

Nipah virus? entry point not clear
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.new...ss=1&id=156949

Statesman News Service

KOLKATA, May 21: The state health department is in a spot after the state government sought a report on how the Nipah virus travelled to Nadia. The health department is groping in the dark.

According to state health department officials, the chief secretary, Mr Amit Kiran Deb, sought a report after the Malaysia-origin virus claimed five lives in the district recently.

?Mr Deb asked for a report about the nature of the virus, how it entered the state and the steps taken to prevent the spread of the virus.

We have submitted the report, detailing the nature of the virus and the preventive steps taken but we failed to detect how the virus entered the state,? a health official said.

?Though we could not trace the route through which the virus entered Nadia, we found out how the virus was transmitted to four people from Tapas Majumdar, the first victim of the disease.

The first three victims were from the same family and the other two had contact with the victims,? the official said.

With these findings, the transmission of the virus from human to human has been established.

Health officials have collected blood samples from piggeries of the virus-hit area.

These samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune to confirm if pigs were the transmitters. But the reports are likely to be negative.

?The Nipah virus was found in Bangladesh early this year but we are not sure how it entered the state,? Dr SN Dutta, joint director (Public Health), state health department, said.