Guna district, about 215 km from Bhopal, was put on high alert for Nipah virus after death of a large number of bats was reported on the campus of National Fertilisers Limited (NFL) at Vijaypur in Raghogarh block.
Director of health services of Madhya Pradesh, Dr B.N. Chouhan, said that Guna district health team had been put on special alert after the report of bat deaths in large numbers, although a Nipah advisory was already issued for the entire state on June 7, following detection of case in Kerala.
Dr Chouhan said that teams of veterinary experts from state animal husbandry department and officials of forest department along with district health officials had already reached the campus to collect samples. He said it would be only after the samples are tested and results arrive that further specific containment measures would be taken.
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“As of now the experts feel that these deaths (of bats) are not due to virological or biological reasons. Yet, the health team is on alert there for detecting any possible symptoms and also people have been advised not to consume any fruits or vegetables that have been pecked,” Dr Chouhan said.
He added that the teams of animal husbandry department would also take care of proper disposal of the carcasses of bats according to protocol.
Commissioner of health Nitesh Vyas also confirmed that an advisory on Nipah had been in place as precautionary measure all across the state since last week.
Though the health department sources put the number of bat deaths at 2,000-2,500 in the past three to four days, District Collector of Guna, Bhaskar Lakshakar, told THE WEEK that about 200 bats had died and the deaths were restricted to the NFL campus.
He said though the bats could also have died of excessive heat, samples were being collected to nullify any chance of Nipah virus presence.
The collector said that a health advisory had been issued to the residents on the NFL campus and those living around it not to consume any vegetables or fruits found pecked or cut. Meanwhile, the hospitals have also been put on firefighting mode, though there has been no report of any person showing any symptom of the infection.
The general symptoms of Nipah are fever, headache, body ache, cough, difficulty in breathing, vomiting, diarrhoea, unconsciousness and drowsiness.
