Nipah virus detected in Kozhikode, Centre rushes team to Kerala for support

New Delhi: For a nation that is already battling COVID-19, the fresh incident of Nipah virus in Kerala has left many people worried.

A suspected case of Nipah, a 12 yr old boy who presented with features of encephalitis and myocarditis was reported on 3rd September, 2021 from Kozhikode district of the state. The boy was hospitalized and has passed away on 5th September.

The Central Government has rushed a team of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to the state for providing technical support. The state government also held a high-level meeting of health officials on 4th September following the information about the Nipah infection.

The following immediate public health measures have been advised by the Centre:

1. Active case search in the family, families, village and areas with similar topography (especially Malappuram).
2. Active contact tracing (for any contacts) during past 12 days.
3. Strict quarantine of the contacts and isolation of any suspects.
4. Collection and transportation of samples for lab testing.

It may be recalled that in 2018 also, there was a Nipah outbreak in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts of Kerala.

Nipah is a zoonotic virus and can be transmitted to humans from animals such as bats and pigs. The disease has a high fatality rate and there’s no known treatment or vaccine available.

The natural host of the Nipah virus are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family and Pteropus genus, widely found in South and South-East Asia. The infection is generally transmitted from animals to human beings, mainly from bats and pigs; human-to-human transmission is also possible, and so is the transmission from contaminated food.