PERAMBRA: Mariyam is crestfallen. Having lost two sons, Mohammed Sabith and Mohammed Salih, and her sister-in-law to the Nipah virus, the45-year-old had been pinning her hopes on hubby Moosa and their 19-year-old son Muthalib. Her hopes rose when she came to know the condition of Moosa, who was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kozhikode, was improving.
Dashing her hopes, Moosa succumbed to the deadly virus on Thursday. ‘’The family was readying to celebrate the purchase of their new house after Ramzan,’’ recalls Ajnas, a close relative. What turned party pooper for the Valachukettil family at Chengaroth, near Perambra, was a well on the premises of the house. ‘’Sabith and Salih, who were cleaning the well, showed symptoms of viral fever two days after cleaning the well,’’ Ajnas says.