Nipah virus outbreak: Will not see you again, take care of children, wrote Kerala nurse to husband before she died

“Please take care of our children”, wrote nurse Lini Puthussery in her last note to her husband before she succumbed to the deadly Nipah virus that is suspected to have killed 12 people in Kerala’s Kozhikode.

Puthussery, mother to five-year-old Rithul and two-year-old Siddarth, was hurriedly cremated on Monday even before her family members could bid a final goodbye because of fears the virus could spread.

In a final note she scribbled for her husband from a hospital isolation unit, Puthussery (31) urged her husband to take care of the children.

“I don’t think I will be able to see you again. Sorry. Please take care of our children,” she said according to TV channels.

The death of the nurse triggered panic among hospital staff who have had their leaves cancelled to treat the sick. Three more nurses from the EMS Co-operative Hospital in Perambra are under observation at Kozhikode Medical College Hospital after they developed fever and headache, but whether they are suffering from Nipah is yet unconfirmed.

All three had looked after the sick from the Moosa family, who have since then been identified as the first human cases of the virus in the state.

(With agency inputs)