Three Confirmed Nipah Virus Deaths, Centre on High Alert
First identified in 1998 during an outbreak in Malaysia, Nipah virus (NiV) infection is a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans. In the 1998-99 outbreak, the virus caused a relatively mild disease in pigs, but nearly 300 human cases with over 100 deaths were reported.
In an attempt to stop the outbreak, over a million pigs were euthanized, causing tremendous trade loss for Malaysia. And since then, no subsequent cases (in neither swine nor human) have been reported in either Malaysia or Singapore.
But now, looks as though the infection is back with a vengeance- but in a different region, Kerala, India. The Nipah virus has so far claimed three lives, while one person is undergoing treatment and 8 others are under observation in Kozhikode district of Kerala according to reports.
A high level team in the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has arrived at the region the cases were reported in order to take inventory of this circumstance. The country was placed on high alert and two control rooms also have been opened. The Union said there was no need to dread since
the virus spreads just through direct contact with the infected individual.Kerala’s health secretary Rajeev Sadanandan told the BBC that a nurse who treated the patients had also died. “We have sent blood and body fluid samples of all suspected cases for confirmation to National Institute of Virology in Pune. So far, we got confirmation that three deaths were because of Nipah,” he said. “We are now concentrating on precautions to prevent the spread of the disease since the treatment is limited to supportive care.”
The health department has activated precautionary measures and issued an alert to the public. “As the primary host of Nipah virus is fruit bats, the disease control and containment strategy include asking people to desist from eating bat eaten fruits. Also, the district collector has been asked to stop toddy tapping in the area as toddy can become contaminated with saliva or bat urine. Pigs too can serve as intermediate hosts of the virus and as per reports there are many pig farms in the area and steps have been taken in that regard,” Sadanandan said.
