Pathanamthitta: In a major relief, a doctor who won accolades for his role in identifying the first COVID-19 cases in Kerala's Pathanamthitta district, has tested negative for the dreaded viral pandemic. The result comes as a relief to even those who closely interacted with Dr S. Anand.
The result of Dr Anand's biosamples which were sent for testing at the unit of National Institute of Virology at Alappuzha, was out on Monday. The District Medical Officer (DMO) and Collector called him up and conveyed that the test result was negative.
The doctor working at the Taluk Hospital at Ranni was under home quarantine as he had come in contact with the coronovirus-infected members of a family based at Aythala.
They had consulted Dr Anand at the Outpatient wing of the taluk hospital earlier this month. He had raised suspicions about COVID-19 after taking note of their symptoms.
The suspect cases had told him that their brother had come from Italy late last month and he had sought treatment at a private hospital. Dr Anand immediately informed hospital superintendent Dr M A Shambu. Dr Anand then completed the medical examination after wearing gloves and mask.
Dr Shambu, meanwhile, passed on the information to Primary Healthcare Centre at Makkapuzha and the DMO.
The healthcare personnel then went to the Aythala house of the Italy-returnees and moved five of them to the isolation ward of the general hospital.
If Dr Anand had not correctly identified the symptoms, the disease would have gone unchecked and more widely transmitted.
Health Minister K K Shylaja and Raju Abraham MLA had congratulated Dr Anand over the phone. He has also been getting accolades from various parts of the state.
"I had taken preventive measures. I wore a mask and washed hands using sanitiser. This helped me to ward off the viral infection," Dr Anand had said.
He is the youngest son of Thiruvalla natives Somasekharan Nair and Umadevi. His wife Dr Geethu works at the Vaikom taluk hospital, and Madhav is their son.
Over 6,500 lives have been so far claimed by coronavirus which originated in China late last year. More than 169,000 people across 35 countries and territories have been infected.
Kerala has so far reported about two dozen cases of COVID-19, the infectious respiratory disease caused by a novel strain of coronavirus.
