The Kerala Health division on Saturday confirmed {that a} 14-year-old boy of Malappuram district has been recognized with Nipah virus. This is the fifth time since 2018 that Kerala is recording Nipah virus instances.
Health Minister Veena George advised the media in Malappuram that the boy, a resident of Pandikkad in Malappuram, is crucial and on life assist at a non-public hospital in Kozhikode. “The tests conducted at the laboratory in Kerala have confirmed Nipah. The samples tested in the Virology Lab in Kozhikode tested positive for Nipah. Now, a final confirmation has come from the NIV-Pune, which has a biosafety level four laboratory,” she stated.
The Health Minister stated a control room has already been opened in Malappuram district to observe the state of affairs. “All steps have been taken even before a confirmation from the NIV-Pune. A 30-bed isolation ward will be opened at the government medical college hospital in Manjeri. All primary, secondary and high-risk contacts of the boy will be isolated. A lockdown will be imposed at a few wards under Pandikkad panchayat.”
George added, “People living in that region are advised to wear masks and they should refrain from making unnecessary visits to hospitals.”
The Minister stated as per the usual working process, 25 committees have been fashioned to handle the state of affairs. “NIV-Pune has sent monoclonal antibody doses for the treatment of the patient. The medicine is expected to reach Kerala on Sunday,” she stated.
The minister added that the boy had sought remedy for fever at a neighborhood clinic on July 12, two days after he developed a fever. The subsequent day, he sought remedy on the outside division of one other hospital in Pandikkad village. On July 15, he was admitted to the identical hospital and later moved to a different non-public hospital at Perinthalmanna in Malappuram, from the place he was shifted to yet one more non-public hospital in Kozhikode on Friday.
After the Nipah virus was confirmed, the boy was shifted to the federal government medical faculty and hospital in Kozhikode on Saturday.
Fruit bats are often known as reservoirs of the Nipah virus. In the earlier outbreaks in Kerala, instances have been reported in areas the place fruit bats have been discovered. Besides, the index instances have been prima facie discovered uncovered to bat-eaten fruits, resulting in infections.
In the case of the 14-year-old boy, the well being division and officers of Pandikkad panchayat try to organize a route map to determine the locations visited by the boy.
Pandikkad panchayat member N T Surendran stated the native authorities are clueless about how the boy, a class-9 scholar, acquired contaminated by the virus. `We don’t understand how the boy contracted the virus. He used to wash in native water our bodies. Everyone in the village feared that he had amoebic encephalitis,” he stated.
Kerala has had 5 Nipah outbreaks since 2018. Till now, solely six positive sufferers have survived — one in Kozhikode in 2018, one other in Kochi in 2019, and 4 instances in Kozhikode in 2023. In 2018, 17 out of 18 contaminated individuals and one in 2021 had died. In 2023, two Nipah deaths have been reported.
In September 2023, Kozhikode reported the Nipah virus for the third time since 2018. Six instances have been then confirmed and two of them, together with the index case, died by the point the virus was recognized. Of the six instances, 5 had acquired contaminated from the primary case, a 47-year-old individual.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 20-07-2024 at 10:30 IST
