The Union Health Ministry said on Sunday that a 14-year-old boy, who has been infected with the Nipah virus in Kerala’s Mallapuram district, succumbed to the disease.
In a statement, the Ministry said, “A case of Nipah virus has been detected in the Mallapuram district of Kerala. A 14-year-old boy from Mallapuram exhibited AES symptoms and was admitted to a healthcare facility in Perinthalmanna before being transferred to a higher health center in Kozhikode. However, the patient later succumbed to the disease.”
The samples were sent to NIV, Pune which has confirmed a Nipah virus infection, it said.
The Ministry said it had advised the state government to take immediate measures, including active case search in the family of the confirmed case, the neighborhood, and areas with similar topography, active contact tracing (for any contacts) during the past 12 days, strict quarantine of the contacts of the case and isolation of any suspects and collection and transportation of samples for lab testing.
A multi-member joint outbreak response team from the National ‘One Health Mission’ of Union Health Ministry will be deployed to support the state in investigating the case, identifying epidemiological linkages, and providing technical assistance, it said.
The Ministry further said, “Additionally, at the state’s request, the ICMR had sent monoclonal antibodies for patient management, and a mobile BSL-3 laboratory for testing additional samples from contacts has arrived in Kozhikode. The Monoclonal Antibodies had reached before the patient died but could not be used due to his poor general condition.”
It may be mentioned here that an outbreak of the Nipah virus disease was reported in Kerala in the past the most recent being the one that occurred in 2023 in the Kozhikode district.
Fruit bats are the usual reservoir of the virus, and humans can become infected by accidentally consuming bat-contaminated fruits.