KALYANI (Nadia): When he first read about the
Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala,
Suri Sadar Hospital surgeon Tarun Majumdar called up his cousins back home in Nadia’s Betai pleading them to be careful. “We lost four family members to this virus in April 2007,” he said. Tarun and his family have been reliving the trauma every day since a fresh outbreak was reported in media recently.
Tarun — a student at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital back then — panicked and suspected that he was infected too. “We did not know it was Nipah virus. For weeks, I was quarantined and underwent several tests. Even after being discharged, I was scared to go back home,” he said.
His fear was not without reason. When Tarun’s eldest uncle — Tapas Majumdar (40) — fell ill, followed by aunt Sabitri (32) and elder uncle Timir (32), they did not know that a prolonged headache and fever would turn fatal in a week. “I was with them. After consulting with doctors at both at Tehatta Hospital and Shatinagar Hospital, they were given analgesics and antibiotics. We had no clue what the mysterious fever was. Only after a week a team of doctors from Delhi visited our home and confirmed it was the Nipah virus. Being with my ill family members all the time made me feel I was affected as well,” As I was with them all along, I felt I was affected too,” he said.
Back at Tarun’s home, their family matriarch Amritabala Majumdar (60) said, “This
Nipah virus took away my two sons, daughter-in-law and later, even my brother-in-law (Nitya Gopal Sarkar, 44). It spread panic and the villagers isolated us. If anything else were to happen, I will go mad.” Amritabala said her days are now spent in keeping her husband — Sukumar
(70) — off television and newspapers. “He suffered a stroke recently, he cannot relieve the trauma,” she said.
Tapas and Sabitri’s children — Chanchal (then a Class V student) and Sangita (then a Class VIII student) — vividly remember the incident. “Ma used to say something was choking her heart and she couldn’t breathe. We hope no one is affected again,” said Sangita, who lives in Malda with her husband. Chanchal said, “All I remember is that after the deaths, there was a huge storm. People say it contained the virus as no more people were affected after that.”
Tapan’s nephew Swapan, who runs his own medicine shop, “I pray that no family relives the trauma we faced back then. My uncle often had toddy and pork. The toddy, it is assumed, was infected by bats and pork can cause these. Perhaps the others got infected from him,” Swapan said.
Teen still in isolation
The 18-year-old mason from Murshidabad’s Rezinagar continues to be quarantined in the isolation ward at ID Hospital in Beliaghata for the fourth day. Even as health department officials said that Rafikul Sk was not infected with the Nipah virus, it is not clear why the mason who returned with fever from Bangalore has been kept in isolation. Hospital sources said the patient’s confirmatory test reports are awaited.
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