GUWAHATI: The Nipah virus scare has taken a huge toll on the sale of fruits this year, leaving fruit sellers in the city dejected. According to them, the sale of mangoes and litchis has been the worst affected.
The vendors informed that the sale of fruits has drastically plummeted during the past few weeks since people have become apprehensive about purchasing fruits fearing the transmission of the Nipah virus.
However, medical professionals are still unsure about the actual process of transmission. They have also raised doubts if the virus is indeed transmitted by fruit bats or not.
Arun Kumar, a fruit wholesaler in Fancy Bazar informed G Plus that his profits have seen a sharp dip of around 50%.
“We are facing a lot of problems due to the reduced sales this time. I am hardly able to sell any mangoes for the past few weeks. During the previous seasons, the fruit always used to be the most sought-after and remained high in demand,” lamented Kumar.
He blamed the television news channels for spreading a sense of panic among people.
“Those who are educated and practical understand that there is no need to stop eating fruits but at least half of our customers have been fearful of buying fruits after hearing about the deaths in Kerala and other parts of the country,” he said.
Another fruit vendor, Sabir Ahmed, informed that sale of mangoes for him has declined by 30-40%.
Ahmed added, “Given the perishable nature of fruits, we are facing a tough time as they become rotten soon and we have to throw away a lot our stock because of poor demand.”
A fruit wholesaler, Ajay Anand, said that he had not anticipated that the news of Nipah virus will have such an adverse impact on sale of their fruits.
The virus has claimed 15 lives in a recent outbreak in Kerala till now. Experts say that some of the symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, disorientation, drowsiness, mental confusion apart from acute respiratory syndrome and fatal encephalitis. The symptoms of Nipah are also similar to other diseases such as Japanese Encephalitis.
Further, the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that fruit bats are the natural hosts of Nipah. The virus can be transmitted to humans by animals such as pigs and bats, while human to human transmission is also possible. Eating contaminated food is also a cause for the transmission of the virus.
Additionally, there is no vaccination available at present for Nipah virus for humans as well as animals.
“No concrete evidence to show fruits responsible for transmission”: Experts
Medical experts, however, feel that there is still no concrete evidence to show that fruits carry the virus and are responsible for its transmission.
Dr Ganesh Saikia, joint director of health services of Kamrup (Metro) district told G Plus “These claims are only based on speculation and observations. However, people should be careful and maintain caution as we have also issued an advisory in the state,” he said.
Saikia added that there was no textbook evidence to state that bats are directly responsible for transmission, as some bats from Kerala which were thought to be carriers of the disease tested negative for Nipah when they were tested in Pune.
“We will only be able to say anything with authority if we get a patient or evidence here,” said Saikia.
Explaining about the history of the disease, Dr Rakesh Periwal, a city-based critical care medicine and sleep specialist informed G Plus that the virus was initially identified in an outbreak in Malaysia, which raised suspicion among medical professionals as the condition of the patients deteriorated very quickly and most of them were identified having neurological disorders.
Later the virus was found in the fruit-eating bats and such symptoms were also detected in people who had consumed the sap of the date plant identified in Bangladesh.
“In India, we are only learning now about the transmission of the virus. The best guess of doctors was that infected bats which eat fruit might be causing the transmission disease,” he said.
He added that as a precaution, people should wash the food well before eating and should double check for suspicion of nibbling-like marks left by animals.
“If some marks are found on the fruits, then those should be discarded,” advised Periwal.
He advised that people should also check for suspicious animal behaviour because the animals too show signs of neurological disorders if infected with Nipah virus.
However, health experts have appealed to people to maintain calm and not to panic.
Last week, the state health officials had issued advisory to take precautions against the disease. Officials added that there have been no suspected virus cases in the state till now and that Assam is not under any direct threat since the fruits, barring only coconut, are usually not imported here from Kerala.
