Awareness needed to prevent Nipah virus contamination
BSS, Rajshahi
Health experts at a discussion here yesterday unequivocally called for creating mass-awareness to prevent any outbreak of Nipah virus infection as its very much dangerous to the public health. They mentioned that the people particularly the grassroots ones must be prohibited from drinking raw date-juice and half-eaten guava and jujube which have, so far, been detected as the main cause of the infection.
They came up with the observation while addressing a daylong district level workshop related to Nipah Virus Prevention at conference hall of Civil Surgeon Office in Rajshahi yesterday.
Civil Surgeon Office organized the workshop in association with Health Education Bureau largely attended by most of the district level officers from both government and non-government entities concerned.
Deputy Programme Manager of Health Education Bureau Maududul Hassan and Senior Consultant (Medicine) Dr Abul Bashet addressed the workshop as resource persons with Civil Surgeon Dr Sanjit Kumar Shaha in the chair.
District Primary Education Officer Abdus Salam, Deputy Director of Department of Social Services Rashedul Kabir and Senior Health Education Officer Md Shamsuzzaman also spoke.
In his keynote presentation, Dr Abul Bashet disclosed that the deadly disease of Nipah Virus with the symptoms of high fever breaks out in the winter season by drinking date juice which generally gets contaminated by the bats.
Nipah virus is a deadly brain and lung disease that emerged from Singapore and Malaysia ten years ago.
He stressed the need for creating awareness about drinking date juice and to collect the juice from only the protected container.
Maududul Hassan urged the social leader to create awareness in the rural areas among the juice collectors (Gachi) so that they put cover on the container fixed with date tree preventing the bat from drinking the juice.
