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Doctors in Tamil Nadu to be alert due to Nipah virus outbreak
Posted on: 06/Jun/2019 9:57:21 AM
Recently the news about a case of Nipah virus infection in the state of Kerala sent shock waves is known. The important information is the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Government of TN, had asked the doctors to be alert and keep Nipah virus in their minds when they deal with cases of high grade fever and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome or AES type symptoms.
Guidelines have been issued by the directorate to the doctors and the public health field staffs in the state of TN. Mr. K. Kolandaswamy, director of public health and preventive medicine, expressed his thoughts and spoke about how doctors in TN have been asked to stay alert. He added that AES was covered in the daily surveillance and the doctors were asked to keep Nipah virus in mind while dealing with the cases of high grade fever. Mr. Kolandaswamy finally shed light on how presentations on prevention and control of Nipah virus infection and guidelines through WhatsApp and email have been sent.
It must be taken into account that Nipah virus presents itself in humans in the form of AES and the persons affected with this Nipah virus would show symptoms like headache, high fever, drowsiness that progresses to convulsions, and/or coma, and/or influenza like illness with symptoms of pneumonia such as fever, cough, sore throat, headache etc. It has been mentioned by the health officials that symptomatic and supportive care was the mainstay of the treatment.
Daily incidences of infectious disease cases reported as in-patients in the government and private hospitals in TN, has been monitored by the health department is known. The information collected is instructions were given to all the deputy directors of health services to strengthen the surveillance activities and to look out for cluster of acute encephalitis cases.
It must be noted that the DME and Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services were requested to establish temporary isolation wards. They must make sure about the availability of adequate personal protective equipment, drugs and lifesaving equipments like ventilators etc.
Standard infection control practices must be available at all hospitals and these include surface cleaning, disinfection and hand hygiene. At DPH, a 24 hour control room is functioning so that the situation is monitored. One important point is samples suspected to be Nipah virus could be sent to National Institute of Virology in Pune through King Institute of Preventive Medicine in Guindy, Chennai.
It was later pointed out by the health minister, Mr. C. Vijaya Bhaskar, that a team headed by additional director of public health would be visiting the border districts like Tirunelveli, Theni, Kanyakumari, Coimbatore, Dindigul and Tirupur. The good news is as of now there is no Nipah virus cases reported in TN and all the precautionary steps have been taken.
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