More people develop Nipah virus symptoms in Kerala's Kozhikode district

Kerala is keeping fingers crossed as more persons at Kozhikode district developed symptoms of Nipah virus, while the source of the infection on the 12-year-old boy who died of the virus remained untraced.

While only three were showing symptoms on Sunday, eight more persons developed symptoms like headache and slight fever. Test results of the 11 symptomatic were expected by Monday late night. A team from NIV, Pune reached Kozhikode and will be setting up a testing facility.

Those in the contact list of the deceased boy also increased to 251 by Monday. Among them, 54 were in high risk group. As many as 129 in the contact list, including 30 in high risk group, were health workers.

Health Minister Veena George said that the health condition of the symptomatic patients were stable. All recent deaths in the region would be reviewed. The state government has also sought supply of monoclonal antibodies from Australia through ICMR, said the minister.

Read | Similarities between Covid-19 & Nipah virus symptoms

Health department sources said that since the Covid protocol was in place and many wards in the region were declared containment zones in view of Covid surge, the chances of large-scale spread of Nipah was remote.

Meanwhile, the source of the infection was yet to be ascertained. Apart from a central team comprising experts from the National Centre for Disease Control, the state Animal Husbandry Department also visited the region and collected specimens of fruits, birds and animals.

The health minister said that samples of bird-bitten Rambutan fruits from two trees on the premises of the house of the deceased boy at Chathamangalam in the district as well as specimen from two goats in the house were also collected. A team from National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal was expected to come down to the state.

Sources said that the presence of wild boars in the region was also being examined.

Meanwhile, the Kerala health sector could heave a sigh of relief as the Covid TPR was witnessing a slight decline over the last few days. On Monday the total fresh cases reported in the state was 19,688 with a TPR of 16.71. The TPR that went up close to 20 per cent last week was witnessing slight decline over the last one week.