Kozhikode: Legacy of goodness thrives beyond lifetimes and late nurse Lini Puthussery, who lost her life in the battle against the Nipah virus, continues to live through her family.
Sajeesh, Lini's husband who recently joined a lower divisional clerical job in the state government's health department, has donated his first month salary to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).
Sajeesh had joined the Public Health Centre at Koothali as a clerk just over a month ago. He had left his job in Bahrain to care for their two little children, one a toddler, after Lini succumbed to the deadly virus in May.
Sajeesh met minister for labour and excise T P Ramakrishnan and handed over the cheque as his contribution to CMDRF.
You can also contribute to the CM's relief fund
Nurse Lini, 28, had become the face of the concerted battle against a relatively mysterious animal-origin virus that gripped the northern districts of Kozhikode and Malappuram in Kerala in May this year.
Nipah, a fatal viral infection, had affected 19 people and killed 17.
Lini, a contract employee at the Perambra Taluk Hospital in Kozhikode, had cared for one of the first affected patients.
The patient died soon after and Lini started developing symptoms.
Suspecting something grave, the valiant healthcare professional asked for herself to be quarantined and soon, the viral infection was confirmed from the pathology labs in Pune.
The news of the deadly virus had kept the people and administration of the state in a state of frenzy for months and Kerala has a live alert for caution against the infection recurring till August 2019.
What is Nipah?
Nipah, a zoonotic infection that was reported first from the Nipah village in Thailand is transmitted through contaminated food or directly between people. The natural host of the virus is fruit bats, found widely in the south east Asian countries like India and Bangladesh from where the infection have been reported earlier.
In infected people, it causes a range of illnesses from asymptomatic (subclinical) infection to acute respiratory illness and fatal encephalitis. The virus can also cause severe disease in animals such as pigs, resulting in significant economic losses for farmers.
