Nearly 19 years after West Bengal last reported a Nipah virus outbreak, health authorities are on high alert following the detection of two suspected cases in Barasat, located in the North 24 Parganas district. The cases involve two healthcare workers, a male nurse and a female nurse, employed at the same private hospital, both of whom are currently in critical condition and receiving ventilator support in an isolation ward. According to senior officials from the state health department, the two nurses began showing symptoms consistent with Nipah virus infection after travelling to their respective hometowns in December.
The female nurse had returned to Katwa in Purba Bardhaman district, where she initially fell ill and was admitted to a local hospital on December 31. As her condition deteriorated, she was transferred first to Bardhaman Medical College and later to the Barasat hospital…
