"Nirmol Chakraborty'r chele 7 bochorer..." is a fake message; there is no Nipah case in Barak Valley

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An ‘idle brain is devil’s workshop’- this grand old proverb is still relevant and a big example of the current state of affairs in Barak Valley. Since yesterday, a message has been doing rounds on WhatsApp, Facebook and other easy to access social media platforms. It claims that a resident of Badarpur’s seven-year-old Rahul Chakraborty died after being infected by Nipah virus.

Since the time reports of Nipah virus attack in Kerala broke, fake messages and news pieces have spread like wild fire all across the country. But the Rahul Chakraborty death story is certainly the most circulated one in Barak Valley. Our correspondent reached out to the superintendent of Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) and he informed us, “We assure that so far we have not encountered any Nipah attack in Silchar Medical College and Hospital.” That means the news of Rahul is a fake one. The superintendent also shared that all government hospitals in Assam are well prepared to counter a Nipah attack. He mentioned that there are isolation ward kept ready to devote special attention to the patients if they suffer a Nipah attack.”

Head of the pediatrics department Nirendranath Pathak also squashed the Nipah attack rumours and said, “While many are speculating, very few are interested in the facts. Rumours claim that a seven-year-old child died due to Nipah virus, the reality is three kids died in last two days (Monday and Tuesday) in Silchar Medical College and Hospital, and one among the three was brought dead. Of the remaining two, a nine-month-old died due to Ham and the 10-month-old died due to a respiratory issue.” He insisted that people of Barak Valley shouldn’t panic reading malicious and fake messages online.

Deputy Commissioner S Lakshmanan too urged people of Barak Valley to not respond to these WhatsApp messages. He was of the opinion that there is a racket, which specifically constructs such messages to create panic. “The district administration is well prepared to detect Nipah attack and take early action if required. At present, not only in Cachar but in whole of Assam, we do not have any evidence of Nipah attack,” Lakshmanan informed.

These are all responsible dignitaries ensuring the fact that there is no evidence of Nipah virus attack in Cachar and the messages doing rounds is malicious. We urge people of Barak Valley to not believe a word written in these unverified message and immediately stop forwarding it.