india

Updated: Apr 24, 2020 17:47 IST

At least 25 health workers, including three doctors and 10 nurses, at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), an autonomous multi-specialty hospital in Patna, were sent on 14-day home quarantine on Friday after coming in contact with a multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patient, who had also tested positive for coronavirus.

The 30-year-old man from Siwan who was admitted to IGIMS on April 22 evening, tested positive for the virus on Thursday. The hospital authorities immediately referred him to the Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH), which is a designated Covid-19 special hospital in Patna, hospital officials said.

“We are in the process of collecting samples for the Covid-19 test of all our health personnel who came in contact with the patient,” IGIMS medical superintendent Dr Manish Mandal said.

“The patient, who complained of breathlessness, also had mild fever and cough. Since he was diagnosed with MDR TB, we referred him to the special ward for such patients. Our personnel took the patient’s nasopharyngeal swab sample for a Covid-19 test yesterday and by late evening the patient had tested positive for the virus,” said Dr Mandal.

“In keeping with the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), we cleaned, sanitized and sealed our MDR TB ward, which was empty. All doctors, nursing, paramedical and sanitary staff of the MDR ward and those who attended on him in the emergency are being tested for Covid-19 and sent on home quarantine, as per government guidelines,” added Dr Mandal.

Earlier, on April 19, a medical officer at the primary health centre (PHC) of Sadar block at Biharsharif in Nalanda district had tested positive for the virus in the first reported case of a doctor being infected in Bihar. The doctor had come in contact with a Covid-19 patient who had returned from the Gulf.

“We collected swab samples of over 200 health personnel, including mine, besides sending around 50 PHC personnel on home quarantine, after a doctor there tested positive for the virus,” Nalanda civil surgeon Dr Ram Singh said. None of the samples, taken as part of the doctor’s contact tracing tested positive, he added.

Another doctor, pursuing his post graduation (PG) course in medicine at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital (JLNMCH) in Bhagalpur, had tested positive for the virus on April 21. Many junior doctors there are now demanding that they be sent on home quarantine after the hospital authorities collected samples of around 50 medical professionals. JLNMCH superintendent Dr Ram Charitra Mandal did not respond to phone calls.

Early this month, six health workers from two private health facilities — three paramedical staff from Sarnam hospital on Bypass Road in Patna, two from Munger’s National Hospital and a private ambulance driver there — had tested positive after coming in contact with Bihar’s first reported fatality to the virus on March 21.

Around 83 PG medicos of NMCH had on March 23 sought permission from the medical superintendent for home quarantine, taking the alibi that many among them had developed Covid-19 like symptoms while examining patients at the facility.

The demand came a day after Bihar reported its first three cases of the fast-spreading contagion. That was also the period when the state was woefully short of personal protective equipment.