Kerala: Probe into vicar’s source of infection inconclusive

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government, which has shrugged off even the slightest mention of chances of community spread, may also have to tackle the possibility of hospital-acquired infection (HAI) or nosocomial infection (NI), especially after the confirmation of Covid-19 in a person who spent over 40 days in two hospitals.
Fr K G Varghese, whose test results came after his death, was admitted to Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) from April 20 to May 20 following an accident.
He was shifted to district hospital, Peroorkada, and was readmitted to MCH on May 31. The presence of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) prompted test for Covid-19.
The epidemiological investigation team has centred its study around healthcare workers, visitors and patients who were admitted in surgical ward of the District Hospital around the same time Varghese was shifted there. Visitor entry is learnt to have been restricted since the patient had been treated for a serious head injury. The interviews of other patients have been completed and the team has not come across evident symptoms among healthcare workers or other patients.
Apprehensions were earlier raised over NI after Abdul Azeez, a resident of Pothencode, had died of Covid-19 in MCH in March. He had been taken to a private hospital and then to MCH on March 23. He was put on ventilator for five days and died around March 30 midnight. Around 230 samples of contacts were tested following his death and source of infection remains unknown.
Fr Varghese also had to be put on ventilator during his initial period of hospitalization between April 20 and May 20 at MCH. According to authorities, none of the medical staff have shown any symptoms so far. Sample collection will be repeated after five days.
“Till now, Kerala has been able to adhere to strict triaging and screening process. As cases with undetected sources tend to increase, we will reach a point, where we have to screen patients who come to hospitals for unrelated/non-respiratory illness,” said a health official.
An article published in the internal medicine journal ‘Annals of internal medicine’ says there has to be aggressive measures about respiratory hygiene and placing restrictions on patients, visitors and health care workers with even mild symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection.
Standoff over burial ends: The stalemate over the burial of Fr Varghese, who died on Tuesday, was resolved as city corporation stepped in to initiate discussions with the parish and identified an alternative site for the burial in a cemetery at Malamugal on Thursday.
Locals had protested on Wednesday against the burial on a site initially chosen by the authorities citing legal dispute over landownership, forcing them to put off the priest’s final rites. Mayor K Sreekumar held discussions with the priest’s family and the parish and pitched other alternatives, including cremation as the last option.
The cemetery of Kumarapuram’s St Thomas Orthodox chapel, at Malamugal, which was near the first site, was then finalised for the burial.
The corporation deployed the machinery to prepare the burial pit as per Covid-19 protocol for management of dead bodies. Police personnel were deployed in the wake of the protests from local residents.