Adenovirus scare in West Bengal? Mamata Banerjee says adequate measures being taken
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday (March 2) said that the state has reported two Adenovirus cases and 10 cases with pulmonary haemorrhage syndrome. Banerjee added that there is no need to panic and the government has done necessary preparation in advance with arrangements for 5,000 beds. She urged the parents to the special care of children up to two years.
Banerjee told reporters: "Of the 12 (recent) cases, two resulted from Adenovirus infections. The rest were due to comorbidities. Some had pulmonary haemorrhages, some suffered from weight loss. There is nothing to be afraid of? We have readied 5,000 beds and 600 doctors have been tasked with the responsibility of dealing with such cases."
India-based news agency PTI reported that a senior health official said on Thursday that seven children died due to respiratory infection in West Bengal in the last 24 hours.
In a statement, the government said 12 Adenovirus deaths have been reported in the state so far and eight of them had comorbidities. However, the government did not term the deaths due to Adenovirus.
They instead said that acute respiratory infections (ARI) were common during the ongoing season. The state health authorities said, "there is no evidence of viral epidemic at present".
What is Adenovirus?
Experts have described Adenoviruses as medium-sized, non-enveloped viruses with an icosahedral nucleocapsid containing a double-stranded DNA genome. It is said that their name derives from their initial isolation from human adenoids in 1953.
Doctors said that children in the age group of 0-2 are considered most vulnerable to the infection. Older children are less susceptible to the virus. Experts also said that most of the cases are treatable at home. In children, Adenovirus usually causes infections in the respiratory and intestinal tracts.
Doctors alarmed in West Bengal
A senior official of ICMR-NICED in Kolkata told Hindustan Times: "Around 32% of the samples sent to us since January tested positive for Adenovirus. In December it was 22%. Usually, it ranges below 10%. We are planning to send some samples for genome sequencing."
As quoted by the same media outlet, Siddhartha Niyogi, director of health services in West Bengal, said, "There is no scarcity of paediatric beds in hospitals. It is only that the cases have become concentrated in some hospitals, one of them being the BC Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences."
