‘Origin’ hospital copes with Nipah scare, reduces workforce
Times of India | 16 January 2026
Kolkata: The high mortality of the infection has caused a Nipah scare. But at ground zero, the Barasat hospital, where the two Nipah-confirmed patients are being treated, it is business as usual. Even as around 70 healthcare workers are on home isolation as they were identified as contacts during the tracing process, the rest are tending to other patients. The hospital, however, decided to prioritise emergency and critical patients and ration elective surgeries for now due to the reduced workforce.
Both the 25-year-old nurses, a male and a female, are attached to Barasat Hospital. In fact, the alertness of the treating doctors, prompted them to call in experts from AIIMS Kalyani for a confirmatory test.
"We started all preventive and protective measures right from the time doctors suspected that it could be Nipah so that other healthcare workers and other patients are safe while giving all required treatment to our two nurses," said a hospital source.
Health experts said that healthcare workers who tend to patients with such a contagious infection are at high risk of contracting the virus. In fact, in the 2001 Siliguri Nipah outbreak, many among the 45 deaths were doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, and hospital liftmen.
None among the 70-odd close contacts, including the treating doctors and nurses, tested positive for the virus. Among the 70, the hospital identified 13 of them as unprotected close contacts as they shared rooms with the two nurses. While all the close contacts are in home isolation and being monitored, sources said monitoring of the 13 is done more stringently.
"Our caregivers always use protective gear like masks and gloves, and maintain hand hygiene as part of universal precaution. Infectious disease patients are kept in an isolation ward which is equipped with negative pressure isolation. Both the patients were isolated and treated in the isolation ward since the time viral infection was suspected," said a hospital source.
"We are managing the workload meticulously to minimise disruption of the hospital operation by prioritising between emergency and elective work," said the source.