A nation must think before it acts.
FPRI’s Sumit Ganguly Quoted in The Times of India
The state health department issued its first advisory on Nipah virus on Thursday for all district administrations, health officials and hospitals across Bengal, putting them on alert and asking them to watch out for symptoms of the virus in patients and record their travel history.
But, even before the advisory came, three districts — two in north Bengal (Jalpaiguri and Coochbehar) and one in south Bengal (Nadia)—held official meetings to review the Nipah situation. The first Nipah outbreak in India occurred in Siliguri, close to the two north Bengal districts, in 2001; 66 people died in that outbreak. Nadia saw an outbreak in 2007, in which five persons died.