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    India's first NiV outbreak victim town Siliguri is sinking deep under panic following Corona outbreak in China

    Synopsis

    With the death toll crossing 100, Corona Virus outbreak in China has set Siliguri in West Bengal under deep panic. The small city at close vicinity to Sino Indian border had once witnessed fatal assault of similar virus outbreak and lost 45 lives in just ten days.

    ET Bureau
    With the death toll crossing 100, Corona Virus outbreak in China has set Siliguri in West Bengal under deep panic. The small city at close vicinity to Sino Indian border had once witnessed fatal assault of similar virus outbreak and lost 45 lives in just ten days.

    Despite being near 20 years old, the memory of the tragic outbreak still sinks the city under deep nightmare. “Experience of near and dear ones death every day has remained as the most dreaded memory of life,” said Somen Mitra, a septuagenarian retired teacher.

    As per record, the two weeks long outbreak in Siliguri with symptoms of encephalitis began in late January 2001 . Almost all of the victims were either medical staff including doctors or had attended to or visited patients in a particular hospital. Out of 61 identified adult cases, 45, including a doctor, died showing high fatality rate of 74%.

    After remaining unknown for long, the reason behind that outbreak was reported by studies of United States federal body Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as India’s first Nipah virus outbreak. Now, the ongoing Corona outbreak is pushing the town deep under panic again.

    International border of China is just couple of hours drive from the city in Himalayan foothills. Sino-Indian trade center at the border witnesses large number of movement of people from both the countries.

    In addition, Himalayan country Nepal and Bhutan enjoy deep social and commercial contact with China and Corona victim cases have already been found in Nepal. Both Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders are within 50 km from Siliguri. No citizen of Nepal or Bhutan needs any visa to cross the International borders with India. These are the factors making Siliguri’s worry deeper.

    As a precautionary measure, “Special health monitoring camp have been established at borders,” said District Administrative officials. Sankar Ghosh, Mayor In Council (Health), Siliguri Municipal Corporation, said, “We do not have any victim yet. But we are in constant touch with health department and requesting all not to be panicky.”


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