West Bengal News: The state government has come on alert mode regarding Nipah virus infection in West Bengal. Keeping the situation in mind, the State Health Department has issued detailed guidelines for Nipah infected patients, suspected patients, their families and all health workers. This guideline has been prepared by an expert team of five-member doctors.
According to the guidelines, all those who came in contact with the blood, saliva, body fluids or sneeze-cough droplets of Nipah virus patients or those who have Nipah-like symptoms are required to remain in home quarantine for at least 21 days. Apart from this, spending time in a closed or confined space with an infected patient will also be considered in the “high risk” category. Special monitoring of such people will be done.
Special instructions to be followed during home quarantine
People living in home quarantine for 21 days will have to undergo health checkup twice a day. If symptoms like fever, headache, confusion, cough or difficulty in breathing appear during this period, you will have to be immediately admitted to the hospital. On reaching the hospital, the patient will be kept directly in the isolation ward, so that the risk of infection can be reduced.
Surveillance also on the basis of clothes and contact
It is clearly stated in the guidelines that even if the person comes in contact with the clothes or used items of the infected patient, the person should be kept under observation for 21 days. The reason for this is that the virus can also spread through surfaces and clothes. Persons taking care of Nipah infected or suspected patients will have to work with complete safety. They can continue working by wearing masks and taking personal protection like PPE kits.
People who do not have any symptoms have been instructed to take a special type of antiviral medicine as a precaution. People who show symptoms like Nipah will have to be immediately admitted to the hospital. Since there is no definitive drug available yet for Nipah virus, patients will be given two alternative antiviral drugs experimentally available to doctors.
RTPCR mandatory for Nipah test
The state government has given instructions to immediately send samples of the concerned patients for Nipah test. It has been said in the guidelines that the medicine will be stopped only if the report comes negative at least twice a day. If health workers come in contact with an infected patient but do not have symptoms, they can continue working by wearing masks and PPE kits. In such a situation, there will be no need for quarantine. Health workers have been asked to take antiviral medicines for 2 consecutive weeks to prevent infection.
