Suspected Nipah virus patient dies in Barishal

A suspected Nipah virus infected patient died at Barishal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital Sunday noon.

The deceased is Md Polash, police constable son of Oliar Molla of Ghoramara village in Magura.  He was posted to Pirojpur district police after joining the force in 2018.

Polash died while receiving treatment at the intensive care unit of the hospital around 12:30pm, said AZM Imrul Kayes, head of the medicine unit of the hospital.

“On Saturday, he was admitted to Pirojpur hospital with fever. Later, he was brought to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital and then shifted to the ICU of Medicine Unit-1 of the hospital around 5:30pm. Polash had also breathing difficulty,” Kayes added.

"As we suspect that he died of Nipah virus so we collected his blood sample and sent it to Dhaka on 11 February at 3:00pm. We will be confirmed whether Polash died of Nipah virus or not after getting the report,” he added.

According to icddr,b in Bangladesh, Nipah virus is usually acquired through consumption of date palm juice contaminated with bat saliva or urine.

On 29 January, health minister Zahid Maleque said a total of five people died of Nipah virus across the country this year.

Eight people were infected with Nipah virus and of them five people died.