One dead from the Nipah virus in Kerala, India

KOCHI:

Authorities in the southern Indian state of Kerala are taking precautionary measures after a 14-year-old boy died of the Nipah virus and 60 people were placed in the high-risk category, the state’s health minister said on Sunday.

Parts of Kerala are among those most at risk globally from outbreaks of the virus, a Reuters survey showed last year. Nipah, which comes from fruit bats and animals such as pigs, can cause a fatal fever that causes swelling of the brain in humans.

Nipah has been classified as a priority pathogen by the World Health Organization (WHO) due to its potential to cause an epidemic. There is no vaccine to prevent the infection and no treatment to treat it.

“The infected boy died on Sunday after cardiac arrest,” Veena George, the state’s health minister, told local television reporters, speaking in the Malayalam language.

Earlier in a statement on Saturday, she said as part of the Nipah check, the government has issued orders to set up 25 committees to trace and isolate the affected.

Dr Anoop Kumar, director of intensive care at Aster MIMS Hospital in Calicut, said a positive case of Nipah had been diagnosed in a school-going boy and people who had come in contact with him were being monitored.

“There is minimal chance of Nipah virus outbreak at this stage,” he said, adding that the situation would be monitored for the next 7-10 days.

There are 214 people on the boy’s main contact list, the statement said. Among them, 60 are in the high-risk category, he said, and isolation wards have been set up in health facilities to treat patients.

Soldiers patrolled the streets of Dhaka on Saturday as the army imposed a curfew in Bangladesh.

Family members of the affected patient were kept at a local hospital for observation after a case of the Nipah virus was confirmed in Malappuram, a town about 350 kilometers (220 miles) from Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram, local media reported. Other people who may be at risk have been asked to self-isolate at home.

The state government said it is working to identify any affected people to limit the spread of the virus. Nipah has been linked to the deaths of dozens of people in Kerala since it first appeared in the state in 2018.