Nipah death in Kerala | The other virus amid a raging pandemic
The Hindu
Kerala reported a new case of the Nipah virus on September 5 even as it continued to register the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country. A.S. Jayanth reports on an unprepared State’s scramble to deal with a familiar adversary and detect how it got transmitted from animals to humans
Mohammed Hashim was wheeled into the chaotic casualty ward of the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode in north Kerala from a private hospital on August 31. “It was around 12.50 p.m.,” recalled Abdul Kareem (name changed), a healthcare volunteer. “Hashim (12) was on oxygen support, which was taken back by the private hospital staff. I fixed another oxygen mask on his face. Hashim was having seizures as if he was epileptic.”
Hashim’s mother, Wahida, who was beside herself with anxiety, kept telling Kareem that her son was scared of injections and that’s why he was getting seizures. Hashim was whisked off to the ‘red area’ earmarked for critical patients. An antigen test showed a negative result for COVID-19. The seizures continued, the cause undetected. Soon, he started vomiting profusely.
The election authorities are gearing up for the counting of votes cast in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 4. The Collectors and Election Officers of Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) districts said on May 23 (Thursday) that their teams were ready for the counting of votes.
Responding to the prolonged water scarcity, the residents of the area took to the streets in protest on Wednesday. The protest, which drew attention to their plight, stopped only after the intervention of the police. It was not until 1.30 p.m. that a 4000-litre tanker was finally delivered by BWSSB, providing relief to the water-starved residents.