Deadly virus scare in Bengal

BHAGADANPUR (East Midnapore): An eight-year-old boy in an East Midnapore village is suspected to have been infected by the Hantavirus strain, which is not common to this part of the world. It has now come to light that over the past two years, three villagers have died of an unknown fever which breaks out just at the onset of winter.
On Wednesday, a stream of top doctors from the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune and Kolkata's School of Tropical Medicine (STM) landed in Nilkantapur village of Bhagabanpur Block I to verify whether conditions exist there for the origin of this very uncommon viral fever.
Two boys of the village, Nayan Jana and Sudip Jana, have been suffering from fever for the past week. After admission to the district hospital in Tamluk, Nayan was referred to a hospital in Kolkata. Tests in the Kolkata hospital revealed that Nayan's fever was not due to any common virus strain, or due to malaria or dengue. His blood samples were then sent to STM and from there to NIV.
The preliminary finding of experts at Pune was Hantavirus, said district health officials, adding however that it could turn out to be something even more critical. Nayan is still under treatment in Kolkata.
Sudip was discharged from the district hospital after his fever receded, but his condition relapsed at home. Sudip's parents then consulted the district hospital doctors, who referred him to Kolkata as well. But his parents opted to treat their son at home, saying they could not afford to take him to Kolkata.
The team of top doctors - including an expert from NIV, three from STM, four from state health department headquarters Swasthya Bhavan, one from PHE and East Midnapore district health officials - collected blood samples of Nayan's family members and around 25 other villagers. Among them was Sudip, whose is still down with fever.
The team members laid nets to collect mosquitoes flying around Nayan's and others' houses and caught a rat, said Dr Dilip Biswas, East Midnapore's chief medical officer (health). This was done because Hantavirus spreads from rodents.
District health officials said if the germ is indeed Hantavirus, it could lead to the spread of the potentially fatal haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). The virus also causes Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in humans which, however, cannot be transmitted from one person to another. The virus affects humans through rodent bites, urine, saliva or contact with rodent waste.
Hantavirus gets its name from the Hantan river in South Korea which provided the first member of the group of viruses, Hantan virus (HTNV). It was isolated in the late-1970s and is one of several Hantaviruses that cause HFRS, formerly known as Korean A-class haemorrhagic fever.
Bimal Jana, a villager who lost his sister in October last year after she was down with fever for five days, said another two of their neighbours also died at the onset of winter two years ago.
The state health authorities, however, refused to confirm the disease. "The experts from Pune will let us know if the virus is detected. They haven't yet told us anything yet," claimed Susanta Banerjee, director of medical education.