The state of Kerala, in southern India, is stepping up efforts to stop a possible outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus, although the state continues to fight the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country.
Kerala is on high alert after a 12-year-old boy died on Sunday of the rare virus, encouraging health officials to start tracking contacts and isolating hundreds of people who came in contact with the boy, who died at a hospital in the United States. coast. city of Kozhikode.
On Tuesday, the state health minister told reporters that samples from eight primary contacts have been negative.
“Giving these eight immediate contacts a negative is a great relief,” Veena George said.
Nipah, which was first identified during an outbreak in the late 1990s in Malaysia, can be spread by fruit bats, pigs and by human contact. There is no vaccine against the virus, which can cause fevers, seizures and vomiting. The only treatment is supportive care to control complications and keep patients comfortable.
According to the WHO, the virus has a mortality rate between 40% and 75%, which makes it much more deadly than the coronavirus.
George said more samples will be tested on Tuesday and a total of 48 contacts will be checked at a hospital, including eight that have been negative. Officials will also conduct door-to-door surveillance and identify secondary contacts.
Over the weekend, the federal government sent a team of experts to Kozhikode to help local officials locate contacts. They also suggested a list of recommendations, such as strengthening health infrastructure in case of more cases and alerting neighboring districts.
The state dealt with Nipah in 2018, when more than a dozen people died from the virus. This time, the concern is compounded by the fact that the state has reached the national headlines in recent weeks for having seen the highest number of daily cases of COVID-19 in all of India.
On Monday, Kerala recorded about 20,000 COVID-19 infections out of India’s daily total of 31,222. Although cases across the country have dwindled after a devastating wave earlier this year, the situation in Kerala remains worrisome, with experts warning that the state cannot drop the guard.