One of the hostels on the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital campus. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, March 3: Chickenpox has hit a boys’ hostel at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, forcing the authorities to suspend first and second year MBBS classes for five days from yesterday. The students’ union election scheduled for tomorrow has also been postponed.

“There has been an outbreak of chickenpox in the junior boys’ hostel. As a precautionary measure, we have suspended classes of the first and second-year students,” said J.B. Saha, the NBMCH principal.

According to sources at the NBMCH, the disease was first detected about 10 to 12 days back. Since then, more than 10 students have been infected with the disease. There are five hostels on the campus —three for boys and two for girls.

“Twelve students are down with the chickenpox and as of now, the disease is confined only to the junior boys’ hostel. The sufferers are first and second year students. Since classes of these students have been suspended, we thought it wise to not hold the students’ union election tomorrow,” said R.N. Pramanik, the officer for the union election.

NBMCH authorities had constituted a committee to find out the reason for the outbreak and to recommend necessary precautions.

“The committee submitted its report on February 26, suggesting that infected students need to stay away from the community as far as possible to prevent the spread of the chickenpox. After the submission of the report, the college was closed for three days on account of weekends and Holi. So, the authorities came out with a circular declaring the suspension of classes on March 2,” Pramanik said.

He added that the infected students had been advised not to panic or depart for their homes. “As the patients should avoid exposure to reduce the chances of the disease’s spread, they were told to stay indoors and not to resort to inter-hostel activities. There have been no reports of infection from the other hostels,” said Pramanik.

However, sources said some students had already left the hostels for their homes.

“It is natural for people to be frightened when such a disease breaks out. Some of the suffering students have already left for homes. Many of the uninfected students, too, left the hostels when the infection started to spread,” said a source.

When asked, the principal said he had no such information in this regard.

Doctors said change of season had caused the disease. “Chickenpox is a seasonal disease and usually occurs during the onset of spring. The infection spreads because of the change of weather. It can, however, be avoided with necessary precautions,” said a doctor.