A female nurse being treated for Nipah virus infection at a private hospital in Barasat, North 24 Parganas, died on Thursday, marking the first reported fatality from the virus in West Bengal.
Medical officials said the nurse fell ill on January 4 and was admitted shortly after. Her condition worsened within days, leading to a coma. She was kept on ventilator support for several weeks. Although doctors removed the ventilator toward the end of January following a slight improvement, they cautioned that she remained in critical condition.
Hospital sources noted that she initially suffered from fever and diarrhoea. She was transferred from Katwa to Burdwan Medical College and later to a Kolkata facility. A blood test eventually confirmed Nipah virus infection. The nurse, employed at the Barasat private hospital, remained hospitalised for 39 days, but medical sources said she could not recover from the damage caused by the infection.
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Another male nurse at the same hospital had also tested positive but recovered and was discharged recently.
Following the detection of the two cases earlier this year, the Health Department issued guidelines and conducted contact tracing. Samples from 82 individuals who had contact with the nurses were tested, and none were found to be infected.
As part of surveillance, the state forest department, in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology, captured nine bats across Kolkata. Swab samples tested negative, although antibodies in one bat indicated a past infection.
Officials said there is currently no evidence of active Nipah circulation among bats, but the nurse’s death has renewed concerns about the virus in the state.
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