Nipah virus: Four Nipah infections have been confirmed in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram:
Teams from National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, would arrive in Kerala during the day to set up a mobile laboratory at Kozhikode Medical College to test for Nipah and conduct research on bats, the state government said today in the meeting.
The move comes in the wake of confirmed Nipah infection in four persons in Kozhikode district of the state.
Replying to a question on the Nipah infection in the meeting, Health Minister Veena George said the virus strain observed in Kerala was the Bangladesh variant which spreads from human to human and has a high fatality rate although it is less contagious .
Ms. George further said that besides the teams from NIV, Pune, a group of epidemiologists would reach Kerala from Chennai today to conduct a survey.
Moreover, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has agreed to fly in the monoclonal antibodies needed to treat Nipah patients, she told the House.
The minister was responding to a question from CPI MLA P Balachandran during the Question-Answer hour on the measures taken to tackle the Nipah virus, which has killed two people in Kozhikode and infected two others.
Ms. George said surveillance, tracing contacts, classifying them into low and high risk, setting up isolation facilities for them, demarcating containment zones and obtaining medicines from ICMR for those infected are some of the numerous steps being taken by the Ministry of Public Health has taken steps to prevent the spread of the virus. the brain-damaging virus.
Seven village panchayats – Atanchery, Maruthonkara, Tiruvallur, Kuttiyadi, Kayakkodi, Villyapalli and Kavilumpara – in Kerala’s Kozhikode district have been declared containment zones.
Soon after the Nipah virus infection was confirmed in Kozhikode district on Tuesday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had urged people not to panic and instead take precautionary measures.
“Everyone should strictly follow the instructions of the health department and police and fully cooperate with the restrictions,” he had said.
One of those infected with the virus was a nine-year-old boy.
The death of the first person, on August 30, was initially considered a death due to the comorbidity of liver cirrhosis, but his son, the nine-year-old boy already in intensive care, and his 24-year-old brother… in-laws are the two positive cases discovered on Tuesday.
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