As Kerala remains in the grip of Covid-19, the state has now come under a Nipah scare after a 12-year-old boy died of the viral infection at Kozhikode district on Sunday.
While the child's mother and two health workers were showing some symptoms, as many as 188 persons were found to be in the contact list of the boy hailing from Chathamangalam about 15 kilometres from the Kozhikode. Around 20 were found to be in the high-risk group were hospitalised. Over 100 persons in the contact list were learnt to be health workers.
A central team comprising experts from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) rushed to the spot and collected samples. Following suspicions that the child recently consumed Rambutan fruits from a tree near his house, samples were collected for testing. There were also reports that a goat owned by the family recently died and samples were collected from the spot where the goat was found dead.
Fruit bats are generally considered to spread the zoonotic (transferred to humans from animals) Nipah virus. It can also be transmitted directly from human-to-human and no treatment or vaccine is available for the infection. The case fatality rate is estimated at 40 per cent to 75 per cent, according to WHO.
Kerala suffered a Nipah outbreak in 2018 that claimed 17 lives. In 2019, the state reported one case, but the infected person was cured. The efforts of the Kerala Health Department in containing the outbreak of the disease received much appreciation from various quarters.
The boy who died on Sunday was suffering from fever and vomiting for around two weeks and was initially taken to a private clinic on August 27 from where he was later shifted to the Kozhikode Medical College hospital. He was shifted to a private hospital in the city on September 1 with suspected brain fever. Subsequently, doctors sent the samples to National Institute of Virology. The test results conforming Nipah came on Saturday evening and he died the next morning.
Kerala Health Minister Veena George said that the area within a three-kilometre radius of his house was declared a containment zone and all nearby regions and districts were also maintaining vigil. Individuals with any sort of symptoms were advised to seek medical attention. The route map of the deceased boy was also published. Several teams were formed for various purposes, including contact tracing and surveillance, and control rooms were opened. The NIV will be setting up a testing facility in the region.
Following allegations that the Kozhikode Medical College authorities did not subject the child to a Nipah test despite being admitted with brain fever symptoms, the health minister said that she would look into it.
Meanwhile, there was a slight decline in fresh Covid-19 cases in Kerala on Sunday. The state reported 26,701 new cases and the TPR stood at 17.17 per cent. The number of active cases in the state was at 2.47 per cent.
More to follow...
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