Nadia wedding in focus as one of the possible sources of Nipah in Bengal
Times of India | 15 January 2026
Kolkata: State health department officials, working on finding the source, from where the two affected nurses in Bengal contracted the Nipah virus, have zeroed in on a border village in Nadia district as a possible place, where one of them might have got infected after consuming raw palm date sap.
Both the male and female nurses have been on ventilator support in the Barasat hospital for the past few days. Their samples had been sent to NIV Pune for testing and the reports came back positive for Nipah on Tuesday.
A team from the health department went to the village in Krishnaganj block, Ghoghragachhi, on Wednesday to gather more details. The team traced 13 close contacts of the female nurse who also attended the wedding there.
A health official said the female nurse, now in coma due to the neurological progression caused by Nipah virus, had visited the village on Bangladesh border for a few days to attend a family wedding on Dec 14. He indicated the possibility of the 25-year-old consuming fresh date palm sap during her stay there. She returned to her Katwa home after attending the wedding and shortly, went back to Barasat to report to work at the hospital, she worked in. Health experts said there was a possibility of the nurse passing on the infection to her male colleague in the hospital, where they were on duty together for a few days before she went back home again and fell sick.
Villagers have told the health team members that Ghoghragachhi bordered Kushtia in Bangladesh, where fresh palm date sap was widely consumed in winter. They indicated the possibility of the nurse and a few other guests at the wedding consuming it.
This seemingly harmless, refreshing drink can prove deadly for humans if contaminated by fruit bats, from where the Nipah virus passes on to humans. In all Nipah outbreaks in the country, fruit bats were documented as the source of infection.
The health department team members also spoke to villagers, spreading awareness about the virus and advising villagers to avoid consuming raw date palm sap. "We traced 13 close contacts of the female nurse who attended the wedding at the village in Krishnaganj block. All of them have been put under home isolation for the past three days. So far, none of them has shown any symptom for Nipah. We are monitoring them closely," said a district health official.
"We are also raising awareness among the villagers to remain protected and not to drink khejurer rosh for now. All the 13 under home isolation are fine. We are also constantly in touch with Swasthya Bhawan," said the district health official.
Nadia had seen a Nipah outbreak in 2007, too, in a village in Tahatta Betai, which was the second outbreak of the virus in Bengal. While the outbreak was small, all the five infected died. The source was traced to raw palm date sap at that time, too.