Kerala: Two health workers have shown symptoms of Nipah, says minister

A 12-year-old boy died due to Nipah virus infection in Kozhikode on Sunday

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ ITDC NEWS Hours after a 12-year-old boy died due to Nipah virus infection in Kozhikode district of Kerala, State Health Minister Veena George said on Sunday that two healthcare workers, who are among the 20 high-risk contacts of the deceased, have been identified with symptoms of the infection.

"We have identified 188 contacts till now. The surveillance team have marked 20 of them as high-risk contacts. Two of these high risk contacts have symptoms. Both are health workers. One works with a private hospital, while the other is a staff member of Kozhikode Medical College hospital," George told reporters.

The minister said that the pay ward of the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital has been converted into a dedicated Nipah ward.

"We have asked the Pune NIV authorities to arrange a point-of-care testing facility at the Kozhikode Medical College hospital. The NIV team will reach here and will do the needful. If in the initial test, the patient is found positive, then the sample will be sent to Pune NIV again for confirmation. That result will be made available within 12 hours," she said.

The boy died at a private hospital in the city early on Sunday. He had developed fever on August 27 and was first admitted to a local clinic. The samples of the boy, which were sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune, confirmed the presence of the virus.

The area within three km radium from the deceased's house has been made a strict containment zone and the adjacent areas have also been placed under strict surveillance.

Meanwhile, the Centre has rushed a team of National Centre for Disease Control to Kerala to provide technical support to the state.

Some immediate public health measures have been advised by the Centre which include active case search in the family, families, village and areas with similar topography especially in the nearby districts of Malappuram. The measures also include active contact tracing for any contacts in the past 12 days, strict quarantine of the contacts and isolation of any suspects and collection and transportation of samples for lab testing.

The first Nipah virus disease (NiV) outbreak in South India was reported from Kozhikode district of Kerala on May 19, 2018. There have been 17 deaths and 18 confirmed cases as of June 1, 2018.