Bengal puts districts on alert after surge in adenovirus infection cases

MP, 20 Feb 2023, Kolkata: In the wake of a sudden rise in adenovirus infections among children, the State health department has issued an alert to all the districts spelling out guidelines to contain the situation. 

All the Chief Medical Officer of health (CMoHs) have been directed to make arrangements for additional pediatric beds. Incidentally, a two-and-half-year-old girl reportedly died at a private hospital in Park Circus last Thursday after being infected with adenovirus. 

A 6-month-old baby died in another children’s hospital in the city last month following pneumonia. 

The Health department has issued directives to the CMOHs in all districts and also the medical college authorities asking them to check the preparedness by stock-taking of oxygen administration equipment and pediatric ventilators. 

Moreover, the districts have been asked to keep the provision to arrange additional pediatric beds for children who are suffering from respiratory infections. 

The CMoHs have also been directed to refer such cases judiciously to higher facilities or Kolkata-based institutions. 

“Every year a seasonal increase of acute respiratory infection (viral) is seen during late winter/early spring. This year an uptick has been reported, affecting the children to a relatively greater degree. The State is capable and equipped to handle the situation. 

However, as a measure of preparedness some directives have been given,” said Director of Health Services Dr Sidhhartha Niyogi. 

The state health department guidelines said that people should try to avoid crowded places, use masks when going into a crowd or a mass transport, maintain hand hygiene and cough etiquette, not to send sick kids to school and not to use antibiotics indiscriminately. 

Adenoviruses are a group of common viruses that can infect eyes, urinary and respiratory tracts as well as lungs and intestines causing fever, coughs with sore throats and diarrhea. The state health department officials held a meeting at Swasthya Bhawan on Saturday to take stock of the adenovirus outbreak situation in the state. 

Virologists and experts in communicable diseases feared that there has been an alarming surge in the number of adenovirus-affected cases this year after the Covid pandemic that hit the country three years ago. 

“Adenoviruses are a group of common viruses that can infect eyes, urinary and respiratory tracts as well as lungs and intestines causing fever, coughs with sore throats and diarrhea. Children are most vulnerable to this viral disease. Adenoviruses are very contagious and can spread when someone who is infected coughs with sneezes. 

Droplets of an adenovirus-affected patient fly into the air and land on surfaces,” said Dr G Mukherjee, a senior pathologist. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/bengal-puts-districts-on-alert-after-surge-in-adenovirus-infection-cases-509273