20 suspected Chandipura virus deaths in Gujarat, CM reviews situation | Ahmedabad News

A review meeting undertaken by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel with district health officials on Thursday discussed the precautions that are to be taken to curb the spread of the virus.

Among the patients who died of suspected CHPV are two children from Panchmahal district, including a four-year-old girl from Kotda village who succumbed at SSG Hospital in Vadodara on Wednesday. The death of an eight-year-old boy from Ghoghambha at a private hospital earlier in the month has also been added to the toll.

Health officials said that among the 35 patients with suspected CHPV admitted in civil hospitals, three are under treatment at the pediatric department of SSG Hospital in Vadodara. The Medical Superintendent of SSG Hospital, Dr Ranjan Aiyer, said one of the patients is admitted to the pediatric ICU and in a critical condition.

In Panchmahal, the district health department has collected samples of sand flies from Ghoghambha to get them tested at NIV as the sample of the suspected deceased eight-year-old could not be collected. Panchmahal Chief District Health Officer (CDHO) Dr M R Chaudhary told The Indian Express“We have reported both the deaths from Kotda and Ghoghambha to the state government. Since the Ghoghambha death happened much before the spread of the virus came to light, we were not able to collect samples from the patient. In the case of the child from Kotda, we have collected blood samples for testing.”

“From Ghoghambha, we have collected samples of sand flies from the neighbourhood of the deceased, as it will contain the virus. The samples will be sent to NIV in Pune,” Chaudhary added.

Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has recorded the deaths of two children with suspected CHPV, including an one-year-old girl. Officials said that samples of these patients have been sent to NIV and the results are awaited.

Health officials said that the one-year-old girl, a native of Rajasthanhad arrived in Ahmedabad in the first week of June and stayed at Sardarnagar. The family returned to Rajasthan and again came back to Ahmedabad in the first week of July. The child reported fever on July 10 and was taken to a private hospital, from where she was referred the same day to Asarwa Civil Hospital. On July 15, she was discharged and returned to Rajasthan. She died the following day.

A five-year-old girl from Arbudanagar in Chandlodiya, suspected to have contracted CHPV, died on Thursday. She was admitted to a private hospital on July 14 and referred to the civil hospital the same day.

The city also reported two children who are suspected to have contracted CHPV. A 5-year-old boy from Saijpur was admitted to the civil hospital on July 15 with fever and convulsions. But he is reported to be stable and remains admitted at the hospital. However, a 11-year-old girl from the area bordering Sardarnagar and Noblenagar, who was admitted to the civil hospital two days ago, is on ventilator support.

AMC Medical Officer of Health, Dr Bhavin Solanki, told The Indian Express that a survey is being conducted of 150 houses surrounding the residences of the patients. Also, fogging has been undertaken.

According to NIV experts, the CHPV is “transient” and hardly gives time for antibodies to develop in the body of the patient.

The expert from NIV told The Indian Express that the institute has recommended to the Gujarat government to also collect a second sample of patients, who have recovered from the disease. “We have tested 18 samples from Gujarat so far, of which, two have tested positive for CHPV virus… The low rate of positivity could be attributed to the fact that the disease is extremely transient in nature unlike other viruses that slowly grow in symptoms.”

“The CHPV virus stays in the body for about three to four days only and so, the result of the test is also affected by the time the sample was collected, whether there was enough virus present in the blood to be detected… So, we have suggested having a second sample collected before the patients are discharged from hospitals. We can test the samples to see if they have a good amount of antibodies…,” the expert added.

The expert further said that molecular tests are primarily conducted to detect the presence of CHPV in the blood of a patient, as “sizeable amounts of antibodies” may not be present to pass through an antigen test. “For samples collected after eight or 10 days, once the patient has recovered and been discharged, we can conduct a plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT), a serological test that utilises the ability of a specific antibody to neutralise a virus.”

The NIV expert added that though CHPV was predominantly spreading in central India since 2015, the cases had “gone down” over the years, only to have resurged since last week.

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, meanwhile, reviewed the situation on Thursday and directed district health officers to take measures to control the spread of the virus.

A CDHO from a south Gujarat district, where no suspected cases of CHPV have been reported so far, said: “The CM directed that the activity of dusting malathion powder in rural areas as well as the repair of crevices in Kuccha homes should be completed within seven days to prevent further spread of the virus. Emphasis was given on setting up intensive care units in districts, as the virus is not giving much time… The infected persons succumb within 72 hours.”

In a statement, Health Minister Rushikesh Patel recommended that protective measures be implemented in rural areas by grassroots workers, including ASHA and Anganwadi workers, as well as nurses.