Nipah death in Kerala | The other virus amid a raging pandemic

Kerala reported a new case of the Nipah virus on September 5 even as it continued to register the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country. A.S. Jayanth reports on an unprepared State’s scramble to deal with a familiar adversary and detect how it got transmitted from animals to humans

Mohammed Hashim was wheeled into the chaotic casualty ward of the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode in north Kerala from a private hospital on August 31. “It was around 12.50 p.m.,” recalled Abdul Kareem (name changed), a healthcare volunteer. “Hashim (12) was on oxygen support, which was taken back by the private hospital staff. I fixed another oxygen mask on his face. Hashim was having seizures as if he was epileptic.”

Hashim’s mother, Wahida, who was beside herself with anxiety, kept telling Kareem that her son was scared of injections and that’s why he was getting seizures. Hashim was whisked off to the ‘red area’ earmarked for critical patients. An antigen test showed a negative result for COVID-19. The seizures continued, the cause undetected. Soon, he started vomiting profusely.