Karnataka health department is coordinating efforts with Kerala to track and prevent the spread of the Nipah outbreak while Kerala has initiated a house-to-house survey in Malappuram. The case has been reported just a month after the district was declared Nipah-free.
Published Sep 16, 2024 | 8:40 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 02, 2024 | 10:36 AM
Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala
The death of a 24-year-old student from Bengaluru in Kerala’s Malappuram, due to the Nipah virus, has made authorities invoke measures to prevent the spread of the virus in the state.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka health department has convened an emergency meeting to assess the risk of an outbreak, since the student had travelled home to Kerala from Bengaluru.
The student, who studies in Bengaluru, had travelled to his hometown in Kerala. There, he was visited by several of his classmates. Contact tracing is underway and for now, 13 students are being monitored in Kerala while three students, who returned to Bengaluru, are under observation at their respective homes.
As a precautionary measure, all the students have been instructed to undergo PCR testing. However, the PCR test has been critiqued by epidemiologists like Dr Amitav Banerjee of Pune, who showed that the RTPCR test is so sensitive that it picks up even dead particles of the virus that may have no clinical significance.
Besides, instead of the traditional procedure of testing, once symptoms manifest to arrive at a diagnosis, the PCR test makes testing the first step, and even healthy people with no symptoms are often unnecessarily tested, upping the panic in the general population.
Karnataka health department is coordinating efforts with Kerala to track and prevent the spread of the virus. The Kerala health department initiated a house-to-house survey in Thiruvaali Panchayath, Malappuram, on 16 September after the second death from Nipah infection.
The district had been declared Nipah-free nearly a month ago, after a 14-year-old succumbed to the virus.
The survey launched by the Kerala government is tasked to identify people with symptoms of Nipah and map the route of the student who died of the disease.
The Malappuram district collector has declared Wards 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the Thiruvaali Panchayat as containment zones, along with the 7th ward of the neighbouring Mambad Panchayat.
Strict Nipah protocol measures have been enforced in these areas, and masks are now mandatory in Thiruvaali Panchayath. Furthermore, the Nabi Day procession in the containment wards has been banned. The state director of the health department is in Malappuram to oversee containment operations.
On 21 July this year, a 14-year-old died after testing positive for Nipah infection; the death of the 24-year-old student now has given rise to concerns, especially since Malappuram was only declared Nipah-free on 21 August, a month after the first death.
The Kerala health minister convened an emergency meeting after the latest case, and there are now 16 committees tasked with the implementation of containment measures.
Ramankutty, president of the Thiruvaali grama panchayat in Malappuram district of Kerala told South First that his panchayat is on high alert. A comprehensive survey has begun, to identify people showing symptoms of infection.
The survey includes questions related to potential sources of infection. Health department officials are conducting door-to-door inspections, with a team of fifty members assigned to five wards for this critical operation.
Questions in the survey
(While the virus is carried sub-clinically by fruit bats, pigs can act as amplifying agents. When the first cases of Nipah were found in Malaysia in 1998, doctors identified those affected as people who worked closely with pigs.)
(Edited by Rosamma Thomas)
