Nipah virus: Kerala’s anxious wait for 13 test results

Nipah Virus: Kerala health authorities await Nipah test results for 13 contacts of deceased boy, source of infection under investigation.

Health authorities in Kerala are anxiously awaiting the serum test results of 13 people on the contact list of a 15-year-old boy from Pandikkad in Malappuram district who died of Nipah at Government Medical College, Kozhikode, on July 21. The test results were expected by July 22 afternoon.

Nine samples were sent to the virology laboratory at Government Medical College, Kozhikode, and four samples to the Institute of Advanced Virology, Thonnakkal, Thiruvananthapuram. Kerala’s Minister for Health Veena George said that six of them had displayed symptoms of Nipah virus infection. Three were from the secondary contact list. “The parents of the boy who died of Nipah have no symptoms; but their samples too were sent for testing,” she said.

The contact list of the Nipah victim prepared by the Kerala Health department contains 350 people, with 101 of them in high-risk category. The Minister said the contact list would include four persons from Thiruvananthapuram and two from Palakkad. The two from Palakkad were workers at a private hospital, and the four from Thiruvananthapuram had reached Perinthalmanna for treatment. The samples being tested at Thonnakkal lab are those in quarantine at Thiruvananthapuram. Two of them are on the primary contact list and the remaining two on the secondary list. “As many as 68 people on the contact list are health workers,” said Ms. George.

The authorities also identified the private bus on which the child travelled after having been infected with Nipah virus. A larger contact list is being prepared with the help of surveillance camera footage.

The Minister said the boy who died of Nipah reportedly had eaten a hog plum (ambazhanga) from a plot infested with bats. “The preliminary investigations show that this could be the source of infection,” she said. However, she said that further investigations were needed to confirm the source of infection.

A team of experts from the National Virology Institute is expected to reach Malappuram district on July 22. A team of scientists from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) already reached the district.

“We are trying to find the presence of Nipah virus in fruits with the help of the ICMR team,” the Minister said.