Fascinating and detailed Hindu article: Fighting a virus, yet again: How controlling the Nipah outbreak helped Kerala to take on COVID-19
Fascinating detailed and long account (details guys like me lap it up but it may be too long for some readers) of how the public health authorities in the South Indian state of Kerala, which had hundreds of its students studying in China (72 from Wuhan), got prepared, and eventually handled the, so far limited (3 cases), of COVID-19 that its citizens returning from China to Kerala, had contracted. They used the experience they had gained in tackling the Nipah virus outbreak in 2018 to good effect. This article appeared in the print edition of The Hindu yesterday (15th Feb. 2020).
Fighting a virus, yet again: How controlling the Nipah outbreak helped Kerala to take on COVID-19, https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/fighting-a-virus-yet-again-how-controlling-the-nipah-outbreak-helped-kerala-to-take-on-covid-19/article30825430.ece.
The reaction of the father of the boy who was the second case that tested positive in Kerala is dramatically eye-catching. The family heard the news about the first case in Kerala. Then the father said, "I was trembling. I immediately drove my son to the Alappuzha Medical College hospital. The scenes at the isolation ward were terrifying. Alien-like figures in full protective gear and face masks took my son inside. It sort of felt like a final goodbye"! As per the article, thankfully, the son recovered well and has been discharged. Note that the son was taken into isolation even before he tested positive, as he had come back from Wuhan and was in contact with the first case (he seems to have travelled back to Kerala with her). The father is under quarantine at home.
The article quotes the Head of Infectious Diseases, Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College about focusing on Wuhan returnees, even if it was "a bit of an overkill", paying off as the three cases were already in isolation in Kerala when they tested positive. If the public health authorities had not been so aggressive, their symptoms may not have resulted in them being hospitalized. Apparently, the news that even asymptomatic patients could transmit the disease, prompted an aggressive surveillance and quarantine strategy from the Kerala govt. public health authorities.
Interestingly, the public health authorities requests that all who had travelled to China voluntarily report to them, was initially viewed as an exaggerated response by the public, and people evaded the govt. health authorities. All that changed with 1st postive COVID-19 case being reported! Now their helplines seem to have got flooded with calls from people who were self-reporting!
The article describes the nightmare of contact tracing for the three infected persons, especially the third person who returned to Kerala from China via Kolkata and Bengaluru (Bangalore). For first case they traced 82 contacts, second case 52 contacts, and for the third case, 186 contacts! Each contact had to be explained the situation, allay their concerns, and had to be followed up on daily basis to confirm that they were doing fine!
My God! Hats off to the Kerala public health authorities for having done this so well, so far. I did not know that such level of contact tracing would be possible in India for such public health issues (different from criminal investigations by police).
The Nipah outbreak in 2018 claimed 17 lives in Kerala. Then Kerala was not well prepared to handle such outbreaks. This time around, they have been much better prepared.
One family got ostracised after it became known that one person from the family had tested positive for COVID-19. A store owned by one of the family lost patronage resulting in losses! Cops arrested 2 for this social ostracism. Awareness campaign by the govt. helped resolve the social ostracism problem. My God! But then such is the reality of human life and human society.
Fighting a virus, yet again: How controlling the Nipah outbreak helped Kerala to take on COVID-19, https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/fighting-a-virus-yet-again-how-controlling-the-nipah-outbreak-helped-kerala-to-take-on-covid-19/article30825430.ece.
The reaction of the father of the boy who was the second case that tested positive in Kerala is dramatically eye-catching. The family heard the news about the first case in Kerala. Then the father said, "I was trembling. I immediately drove my son to the Alappuzha Medical College hospital. The scenes at the isolation ward were terrifying. Alien-like figures in full protective gear and face masks took my son inside. It sort of felt like a final goodbye"! As per the article, thankfully, the son recovered well and has been discharged. Note that the son was taken into isolation even before he tested positive, as he had come back from Wuhan and was in contact with the first case (he seems to have travelled back to Kerala with her). The father is under quarantine at home.
The article quotes the Head of Infectious Diseases, Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College about focusing on Wuhan returnees, even if it was "a bit of an overkill", paying off as the three cases were already in isolation in Kerala when they tested positive. If the public health authorities had not been so aggressive, their symptoms may not have resulted in them being hospitalized. Apparently, the news that even asymptomatic patients could transmit the disease, prompted an aggressive surveillance and quarantine strategy from the Kerala govt. public health authorities.
Interestingly, the public health authorities requests that all who had travelled to China voluntarily report to them, was initially viewed as an exaggerated response by the public, and people evaded the govt. health authorities. All that changed with 1st postive COVID-19 case being reported! Now their helplines seem to have got flooded with calls from people who were self-reporting!
The article describes the nightmare of contact tracing for the three infected persons, especially the third person who returned to Kerala from China via Kolkata and Bengaluru (Bangalore). For first case they traced 82 contacts, second case 52 contacts, and for the third case, 186 contacts! Each contact had to be explained the situation, allay their concerns, and had to be followed up on daily basis to confirm that they were doing fine!
My God! Hats off to the Kerala public health authorities for having done this so well, so far. I did not know that such level of contact tracing would be possible in India for such public health issues (different from criminal investigations by police).
The Nipah outbreak in 2018 claimed 17 lives in Kerala. Then Kerala was not well prepared to handle such outbreaks. This time around, they have been much better prepared.
One family got ostracised after it became known that one person from the family had tested positive for COVID-19. A store owned by one of the family lost patronage resulting in losses! Cops arrested 2 for this social ostracism. Awareness campaign by the govt. helped resolve the social ostracism problem. My God! But then such is the reality of human life and human society.
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