Kerala is also struggling with the nipah virus in the Indian state – SME.sk

NEW DELHI. Authorities in the Indian state of Kerala, where the epidemic caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, are also trying to stop the spread of another infection, the zoonotic nipah virus, which a 12-year-old boy succumbed to last weekend, according to the AP.

Authorities began tracing people who were in close contact with the boy and ordered them to be quarantined. In the meantime, cases of new infections have also been confirmed.

There are a hundred people in quarantine

The boy was admitted to a hospital with high temperatures a week ago. His condition worsened during his hospitalization and doctors suspected inflammation of the brain.

Samples of the boy’s blood were sent to the National Institute of Virology, which confirmed that nipah virus infection had been analyzed.

In this context, the hospital monitors 48 people who have been in contact with the boy. Eight of them had a negative test result. More than a hundred other people, including paramedics, are in quarantine and will be tested in the near future.

Authorities closed the area within about three kilometers of the boy’s house and examined people for signs in all adjacent districts of Kerala. The neighboring state of Tamil Nadu is also on alert, with medics investigating all suspected cases of fever.

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There is no cure or vaccination

Nipah is a zoonotic virus, which means that it is transmitted from animals to humans. Transmission usually occurs when humans come into direct contact with animals or through the consumption of contaminated food. However, there have been many cases of human-to-human transmission of the virus.

Nipah virus can cause severe fever, cough, sore throat and respiratory pain, but also cramps and vomiting. These symptoms appear in infected people from three days to two weeks. This condition later rapidly progresses to swelling of the brain cells, leading to drowsiness, confusion in patients, and then to possible coma and death.

So far, there is no vaccine or cure for the nipah virus. The only treatment is supportive therapy. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mortality from nipah ranges from 40 to 75 percent. The virus was first identified in the late 1990s in Malaysia.

CBS television reported that this is the second case in the last three years that nipah virus has been reported from the state of Kerala. The epidemic situation is all the more serious given that in recent days, the state of Kerala accounts for about 68 percent of the approximately 40,000 daily cases of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection in India.