Was the 52-year-old Keezhatoor-based 'madrasa' teacher who had returned after the Umrah pilgrimage from Saudi Arabia a dummy COVID-19 patient who had only served to distract attention while the Sars-CoV-2 virus gleefully and stealthily spread through other people?
The man has tested negative, and he had never shown any COVID-19 symptoms either. His irresponsible behaviour after his return had also raised a huge scare in Malappuram. Wilfully flouting quarantine norms, the man had gone around meeting people and was part of mass gatherings in mosques and weddings. It was feared the man's utter disregard for public health would have stoked community transmission in the district.
His father, an 85-year-old faith healer, had tested positive. Since the old man had no travel history, the Malappuram district administration and health officials concluded the father was infected by the pilgrim son.
Now that the son had tested negative, the question is who had infected the father. Tracing the father's infection to the son was a simple straightforward guess. The son had just returned from Umrah on March 11. The first person in Malappuram to test positive for COVID-19 was Mariakutty. She too had gone to Saudi Arabia for the Umrah and had returned on March 9.
The second positive case in Malappuram was also a woman named Fathima. She also had gone for the Umrah and had landed in Karipur on March 12. “So it was only logical to conclude that this man who had returned from the Umrah almost around the same time was also infected,” a top district health official said.
After returning from the Umrah, it is usual for the pilgrims to hug their close ones at home to pass on the divinity they had carried with them from the holy site. “So we knew here was very close contact between father and son,” the official said.
But health officials in the district are now forced to shift attention elsewhere. They are now zooming in on men, mostly Gulf returnees, who used to frequently visit the 85-year-old faith healer. “We now know that this old man was a peddler of black magic and that rich men used to make secretive visits to his house. We have also learned that this man had the perverse habit of spitting water at his clients through a hollow reed. He also used to hug them,” the health official said.
Most of the voodoo magician's contacts have been identified and quarantined inside a pharmacy college in Keezhattur. “But we fear there could be others who have still not come out fearing the stigma of having associated with a black magician,” a community medicine expert in Malappuram said.
It was hard to elicit information from the old man as, by the time he was brought to the hospital, pneumonia had pushed him to the verge of death. He is almost fully cured now but does not remember much.
Nonetheless, the Malappuram administration still likes to believe that the son was the father's source of infection. “We have collected his blood sample and would do an antibody test once the rapid test kits arrive. If the test turns positive, then there is nothing to worry,” the health official said.
Antibodies are protective commandos automatically pressed into service the moment a body is attacked by a foreign agent like a virus. These antibodies will linger on forever in the blood. So the presence of these 'Sars-CoV-2'-specific antibodies in a blood sample is proof that the person had survived the virus.
Health officials also say the PCR (polymerase chair reaction) test or the viral antigen test done on the son cannot be considered conclusive. “The son's sample was subjected to the test very late. He returned from Saudi Arabia on March 11 but his samples were taken for testing only on April 4. “By then the infection would have long gone,” the health official said.
The doctor also had an explanation for the man's asymptomatic condition. “Nearly 85 per cent of those who are infected show only the mildest of symptoms and because of their high immunity levels would get well soon. The son would fall in that 85 per cent category. We have information that this man had visited a nearby public health centre, in the days after he returned, complaining of sore throat. So there were some symptoms,” the official said.
However, if the antibody test also turns up negative, Malappuram will have to seriously consider the possibility of community transmission.
