Death toll from encephalitis caused by nipah virus at Hatibandha in Lalmonirhat reached 25 with two who died on Sunday, local people said.
The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research director, Mahmudur Rahman, in Dhaka confirmed the death of two more patients at Hatibandha on Sunday, taking the official death figure to 17 in six days. Five died in 48 hours. The deceased were mostly children.
The government has, meanwhile, intensified surveillance and measures including distribution of leaflets and closing down all educational institutions in the upazila for a week to check the spread of the virus.
Government physicians from adjoining upazilas have also started work at Hatibandha, sources said.
It took the institute four days to identify the disease, which first claimed 12 lives on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Hospital sources said 23 nipah-infected people were being treated in Rangpur Medical College Hospital, Gangachara upazila health complex in Rangpur and Hatibandha upazila health complex in Lalmonirhat on Sunday.
The health minister, Ruhal Haq, IEDCR director Mahmudur Rahman and IEDCR senior scientific officer Mushtaq Hossain, who is leading a team of experts at Hatibandha, urged the people not to panic but to be cautious.
Although no nipah case in the affected area is found to have been caused through person-to-person contact, the families of the infected people and others of the locality have been kept under surveillance, said Mahmudur and Mushtaq.
