Nipah-affected nurse's letter from deathbed goes viral

Thiruvananthapuram(Ker): A letter written by a Keralite nurse minutes before she died of the ‘Nipah’ virus has gone viral in the social media, leaving people teary-eyed.

Twenty eight-year-old Lini working in the Perambra Taluk Hospital in Kozhikode got exposed to the ‘deadly’ virus while treating affected patients.

She died yesterday.

Lini leaves behind her husband who works in Bahrain and two sons aged five and two.

In her letter to her husband Sajeesh, Lini expressed her pain and anguish that she could not see him again.

“I am almost on the way. I do not think I can meet you,” she had said.

She had requested her husband to take care of their children and take them to the Gulf nation with him.

Her relatives could not see even her body, however, they paid their last respects as they allowed the authorities to cremate the body to prevent the chance of spreading the virus.

After coming to know of Lini’s health, Sajeesh had come home two days ago.

Nipah virus has so far claimed 10 lives in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts in north Kerala while the condition of two undergoing treatment is said to be critical.

Nipah virus (NiV) infection is a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans.

The natural host of the virus are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family, Pteropus genus.

There is no vaccination for the virus which has a mortality rate of 70 per cent.

Health officials said they had found mangoes bitten by bats in a home where three people died of the suspected infection, according to a report.