Kerela Health Minister Veena George's office on Friday has confirmed another case of Nipah virus infection in Kozhikode. The sample of a 39-year-old man turned positive. The man was under observation in a hospital. He had sought treatment at a private hospital where Nipah-positive affected were treated for other ailments earlier, the Health ministry statement said.
While the total number of cases of Nipah virus is six, active cases stand at four after two people died due to the infection. This is the fourth outbreak in Kerala since 2018. There are no vaccines to prevent or cure the infection, which has a mortality rate of about 70 per cent. The usual treatment is to provide supportive care.
The outbreak of the Nipah virus in Kozhikode district has prompted the administration to introduce Covid-like containment zones in nine panchayats. The authorities are scrambling to identify high-risk contacts after the state reported two deaths from the brain-damaging virus, which causes respiratory distress and encephalitis. The infected patients are undergoing treatment at the hospitals, the state officials said. Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has delivered the monoclonal antibody on the state's request to combat the deadly Nipah virus.
The antiviral is the only option available to the government to treat infections, although its efficacy has not been clinically proven yet. Kerala health minister George has said the stability of the antiviral was discussed with a central expert committee. A mobile BSL-3 (Biosafety Level-3) laboratory was also sent to ground zero to test samples for the virus in the district itself. The Kerala government has decided to take body-fluid samples of all of those who are on the 'high-risk' contact list linked to the first Nipah victim.
Earlier, the Kerala government has created containment zones in a five-kilometre radius of the homes of the two men who died of infection from the Nipah virus on August 30 and September 11. The state had sent 11 more samples to Pune’s National Institute of Virology for testing, which, in a relief to the government, returned negative results for the virus, reported PTI quoting a person aware of the matter.
The samples of another 15 people on the high-risk contact list have also been sent for tests, according to PTI. A five-member team comprising experts from the National Centre for Disease Control, RML Hospital and NIMHANS has been stationed in Kerala to take stock of the situation and assist the state government in the management of the Nipah infection.
States like Karnataka and Rajasthan have issued an alert for Nipah virus. The Karnataka government, according to the news agency ANI, has issued a circular addressing the gravity of the situation. It has emphasized the importance of curtailing unnecessary travel from Karnataka to the affected areas in Kerala.
As part of this strategy, the Karnataka government has decided to establish fever surveillance checkpoints at entry points from Karnataka to Kerala. Furthermore, they are set to intensify fever surveillance activities in the bordering districts, which include Chamarajanagar, Mysore, Kodaga, and Dakshin Kannada.
In the past
More than 600 cases of Nipah virus human infections were reported between 1998 to 2015, WHO data shows. In 2018, an outbreak in Kerala claimed 21 lives, with other outbreaks in 2019 and 2021.
The 1998 outbreak in Malaysia and Singapore killed more than 100 people and infected nearly 300. Since then, it has spread thousands of miles, killing between 72 per cent and 86 per cent of those infected.
A 2001 outbreak in India and two more in Bangladesh killed 62 of 91 people infected.
(With agency inputs)
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