Authorities have shut down some schools and offices and reported more than seven villages as containment zones in the southern state of Kerala after it recorded two deaths from the rare and killer brain-damaging Nipah virus.
An official from Kerala’s health ministry said on Wednesday that an adult and a kid are still infected and in hospital, and more than 130 individuals have so far been tested for the virus, which is transferred to humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected bats, pigs or other people.
Veena George, the state’s Health Minister, told reporters that we are focusing on outlining connections of infected persons early and separating anyone with symptoms.
Public activity has been restricted in parts of the state to prevent medical concerns, she added.
Since August 30 two people, who were infected with a familiar disease, have died in the state’s fourth outbreak of the virus since 2018, causing authorities to declare containment zones in at least seven villages in the district of Kozhikode.
Tough isolation rules were embraced, with medical staff being quarantined after immediate contact with the infected.
A government official said that the first victim, who was infected with the same disease, was a small landholder in the district’s village of Marutonkara.
The daughter and brother-in-law of the victim, both infected, are in an isolation ward, with other family members and neighbors being tested.
The second casualty followed contact in hospital with the first victim, doctors’ initial study has revealed, but the two were not connected, added the official.
Three federal teams, including specialists from the National Virology Institute, were set to reach on Wednesday for more tests, the official said.
