Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Monday the Centre was in contact with the authorities in West Bengal after the detection of two suspected Nipah virus cases in AIIMS Kalyani. In a video address, Nadda said the Union Health Secretary established contacts with West Bengal Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary Health soon after the cases were reported.
He said a National Joint Outbreak Response team, comprising medical experts, was constituted to prevent the spread of the virus.
"Yesterday on January 11, at the ICMR's viral research lab at AIIMS Kalyani, two suspected cases of Nipah Virus were found, it is a serious zoonotic disease, hence coordinated efforts were launched to check it, as soon as we got the information, our Health Secretary talked to West Bengal Chief Secretary, and Principal Secretary Health about the situation. To provide help to check the outbreak, soon we constituted a National Joint Outbreak Response team, where we pooled in experts,” Nadda said.
Nadda talks with Bengal CM
The Health Minister said the guidelines to prevent the outbreak of the disease have been shared with the Bengal’s disease surveillance unit. Nadda said he talked with Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to discuss the issue, asserting that the Centre stands firmly with the state government.
“The Centre has shared the guidelines to the state's integrated disease surveillance unit.... Also the National Centre for Disease Control, and Public Health Emergency Unit have been made active. The Centre is standing firmly with the WB govt, we are giving technical, logistical, operational support... Today I also talked to CM Mamata Banerjee, and asked her to instruct her expert team to work actively with the Centre's team to check it, she assured that they are already activated," he added.
The two cases of Nipah virus in the state were detected on January 11. One of the suspects had a history of travelling to Ghugragachi in Bengal’s Nadia district, which is located close to the India-Bangladesh border, PTI reported citing a source.
