The fight was tough and at the end Lini won. The brawl was between a nurse named "Lini" and an uncanny virus called "Nipah". Nurse Lini died of the virus but won over million hearts and lives with her exemplary valor.
Mohammad Sabith, the first victim of Nipah virus was brought to the Taluk hospital in Perambra, Kerela. A daily wage nurse, Lini, officially took charge of the patient's care. Lini was taking good care of him more like a family member. The duty which Lini was rendering to Sabith was transcending the motherly care. She had all the hopes that Sabith would walk back to his home very soon. Couple of days later, she witnessed Sabith's death. She broke into tears and was grief-stricken because she had taken very good care of him. Unaware of the viral infection inside the patient, she treated him for some regular disease. By that time, the deaths caused by the Nipah virus had touched 10 and the fright was transcending around.
Two days later the death of the patient, Lini who was trying to console herself of Sabith's death, started feeling feverish. The fever was accompanied with sessions of vomits and headaches. Lini tried treating herself with routine medicines, when sooner she realized she might be suffering from the same virus. A day before the symptoms practically appeared, Lini came to know that the patient she was treating died of Nipah Virus.
Lini got herself admitted on the same day she identified the symptoms, at a private hospital in Kozhikode, where it was verified that she is infected too. Lini insisted on shifting her to an isolated ward to avoid the spread of the virus. She called in her brother Anil, who came to see her. She was doing fine the day she was isolated but by the night she realized that she won't survive the virus. So, she wrote a small note to her husband, Sajish who works as an accountant in a small firm in Bahrain and requested to be quarantined. Since, the cure to the disease is not known yet, she knew she couldn't be saved at any cost. The note to her husband spoke, ""I don't think I will be able to see you again. Sorry. Please raise our children well. You should take Kunju (elder son) to the Gulf. You shouldn’t be alone like my father. With lots of love, umma". Her letter was a mix of Malayalam and English, in those last minutes, such was the hurry.
The sooner she died, she was cremated within the hospital with the consent of her family in order to prevent the infection. Lini left behind her two brave sons, aged five and two, who will be proud of their mother in the years to come. Lini was assimilated in the team who was treating the very first patient of Nipah Virus in Kerela. Lini's patient who served as a carrier of infection, was brought in to the hospital with two other people of the same family. Some dead bats were found in the well near their home. The contaminated water is diagnosed as the reason for the Virus spread. Two more nurses are struggling for life in the same hospital, who were treating the Nipah patients.
The relentless services of the nurses in the hospitals earns our highest regards. Lini was a super-hero, who fought for the people against the virus. She is a Martyr. Lini won the battle against apathy and fear. Many of her co-workers reported that even they are scared of treating patients in the hospital, but it's their duty, they ought to do it.
It's been said that nurses are often rejected for marriages in the society because they treat patients of different kinds and they can be carriers to certain diseases. I say, brave are those who marry them and valiant are the nurses who risk their lives everyday to bring smiles on others' faces.
9 UNKNOWN FACTS ON NIPAH VIRUS:
1. The cure/vaccination to the disease is not available yet.
2. Nipah virus causes brain fever which leads to death.
3. The virus can be transmuted to livestocks and human from infected fruit bats.
4. Initial symptoms of Nipah are high fever, unbearable headache and troubles while breathing.
5. In Kampung Sungai Nipah, Malaysia the virus was first identified during 1998.
6. The disease outbreak was last witnessed in Bangladesh.
7. Till date more than 260 have fallen prey to this disease and the mortality rate is 70%.
8. The last stage of the infected patient is agonizing encephalitis and coma.
9. Nipah virus is the third largest global epidemic after Ebola and Zika.