KOZHIKODE: Amid panic due to Nipah infection, another issue surfaced on Saturday when a group of people known to have consumed preventive medicine given by a staff at Manassery Government Homoeopathic Hospital, complained of uneasiness.
The medicines were distributed to people to prevent Nipah infection. An attender gave the medicine to people, who came to the hospital on Friday, without the consent of the doctor.District Medical Officer (Homoeopathy Department) Dr Kavitha Purushothaman told Express she has launched a probe into it. “I came to know about the incident on Saturday noon when a counsellor at Mukkom municipality informed me about this. I immediately called the doctor at the hospital and came to know he was on leave that day,” he said.
Kavitha said she had suspended the attender and sought a report on the incident from the district-level expert team. She clarified no officers provided any medicines claiming it will contain the virus. “We just administered medicines to build people’s immunity against viral diseases. No other medicines have been distributed to any hospital,” she said.
Kavitha said no preventive homoeopathy medicine was known to have caused uneasiness among people. “I do not know whether this is fake information or not. Some people might have come up with a prank to create panic. In any case, we will conduct a detailed probe,” she said, adding she had also sent a preliminary report to the Director of Health Services Dr R L Saritha.