After cases of discrimination against people who had travelled to Kerala and offered to get tested for the Nipah virus came to light, the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) on Wednesday issued a circular asking citizens not to do so.
According to a State official, some people who had returned from Kerala had approached Pune’s National Institute of Virology hoping to get tested for the infection although none of them reported any symptoms. They revealed that they travelled to Kerala and their employers refused to let them join work after reading about the virus and the deaths.
Dr. Sanjeev Kamble, head of DHS, in the circular, said cases of the virus are contained in a specific region in Kerala and there was nothing to worry about in Maharashtra. He said, “There are no restrictions on people with travel history to Kerala so far.”