The Kerala administration has swung into action after a 12-year-old boy died of Nipah virus in Kozhikode on Sunday and 20 “high-risk” contacts of the victim were identified.
The boy was admitted to a private hospital in Kozhikode with symptoms similar to that of Nipah. After his demise, Kerala Health Minister Veena George confirmed that the death was due to Nipah virus.
“The child died at 5 am today. Pune NIV has confirmed that the sample was Nipah positive. All primary contacts were identified and are being isolated. There is a special team already in place” the Health Minister confirmed while advising people to not panic.
She also informed that 20 people are identified as high-risk contacts, including two health workers, who are symptomatic. All 20 high risk contacts are being shifted to medical college hospital by 4 pm today, she added. The state government later in the day released the route map of the child.
People who were at a given place within the marked area can contact the authorities to ensure “no one is left out”, George said.
The state government had held a high-level meeting of health officials late Saturday night following the information about the Nipah infection, a health department source told PTI.
A Central team has been rushed to Kerala following the boy’s death in Kozhikode district, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday. The Central Government has rushed a team of National Centre for Disease Control to the state, which will be reaching on Sunday. The team will provide technical support to the state, the ministry said.
Some immediate public health measures have been advised by the Centre which include active case search in the family, families, village and areas with similar topography especially in Malappuram.
The measures also include active contact tracing for any contacts in the past 12 days, strict quarantine of the contacts and isolation of any suspects and collection and transportation of samples for lab testing, the ministry said. Nipah virus is spread by saliva of the fruit bats.
The first Nipah virus disease (NiV) outbreak in South India was reported in the Kozhikode district of Kerala on May 19, 2018. The state had witnessed 17 deaths and 18 confirmed cases till June 1, 2018.
Nipah reappeared in 2019, this time in Ernakulam district. However, the infection was contained to just the lone index case, who survived the infection.
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