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West Bengal Confirms Five Nipah Cases as Hospital Cluster Grows

Authorities escalate containment through quarantines, AIIMS Kalyani testing, and dedicated infectious-disease care.

Overview

  • Three newly infected people — a doctor at the Barasat private hospital, a nurse, and a Katwa hospital staffer — brought the active case count to five, with the trio shifted to Kolkata’s Beliaghata infectious diseases hospital.
  • The first two confirmed patients, both nurses, remain in critical care on ventilators, with doctors reporting one in a coma and the other severely critical.
  • Roughly 100 identified contacts are under home quarantine, with about 30 under closer observation as tracing extends across Nadia, Purba Bardhaman, and North 24 Parganas.
  • Samples from contacts and suspected cases have been sent to AIIMS Kalyani for laboratory confirmation, with earlier positives reconfirmed by the National Institute of Virology in Pune.
  • A dedicated ward has been opened at the Beliaghata facility, hospitals have been instructed to transfer suspected cases promptly, and the Union Health Ministry has pledged technical and logistical support.