Latest Nipah Virus Outbreak In Kerala Raises Concerns

Nipah Virus outbreak in Kerala: As the state of Kerala continues to battle with a massive surge in COVID-19 cases, a new medical crisis is knocking on its door. On Sunday, a 12-year-old boy died in Kozhikode after contracting Nipah Virus. Three samples of the child were sent to National Institute of Virology in Pune, all of which tested positive for Nipah, thus sparking a wave of fear regarding another outbreak of the deadly virus.

State Health minister Veena George said in a statement that as many as 18 close contacts (consisting primarily of family members and health care workers) and 150 secondary contacts have been traced so far. All the contacts have been quarantined, out of these, two health care workers from the first group showed symptoms of Nipah subsequently.

The minister further said that while there is no need to panic, strict vigil is the need of the hour. "We have a strict Nipah protocol and we will go by that," she said.

According to the boy's family, he had been showing symptoms of the disease for many days, but the authorities at the medical college where he was being treated didn't test his samples. After his fever failed to subside, the boy was shifted to a private hospital, from where his samples were sent to NIV, Pune for immediate testing. The boy was buried following strict Nipah burial protocols following his death on Sunday morning.

After the news broke, the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu decided to monitor people arriving from Kerala. The two states share border across as many as nine district of TN. The nine districts have been directed to conduct fever camps at all entry points, thermal scanning all the people arriving from Kerala. The districts are already testing passengers for other diseases like COVID-19 and Zika.

Why is the outbreak worrisome?

In 2018, the state of Kerala saw a deadly outbreak of Nipah virus that claimed 17 lives. The infection has a mortality rate of 70 percent. Nipah has been identified as a "priority disease" by the World Health Organisation. A report released in February this year went on to warn that Nipah could be one of the viruses that could lead to the next pandemic.

The current Nipah outbreak further puts stress on Kerala's health infrastructure that is busy dealing with two lakh weekly cases of the disease. The state currently has a test positivity rate of 17.17 percent.

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