Officials collect bats from a well of a house after the outbreak of Nipah virus near Perambra in Kozhikode on Monday. PTIKozhikode/New Delhi: One more person has succumbed to the Nipah virus, taking the death toll to six, Manorama News reported on Tuesday.
A Kozhikode native, who was undergoing treatment at the Kozhikode Medical college hospital, died Tuesday morning.
A Perambra native Janaki had died due to fever on Sunday night. Later, it was confirmed that she was infected with the Nipah virus.
Nipah virus, spread by fruit bats that infects both animals and humans, had earlier claimed the lives of two brothers and their aunt in Perambra of Kozhikode district within a few weeks.
Dead bats were found from the well of the house belonging to the family which had lost 3 of its members to the virus. The well has been closed.
A nursing assistant, Lini, who had treated the three infected people, died Monday morning.
At least nine people, including nurses, are under close observation.
Unconfirmed reports
Family members of the patients admitted to the Kozhikode Medical College wear safety masks as a precautionary measure after the Nipah virus outbreak, in Kozhikode, on Monday. PTIFive more people have died due to high fever and similar symptoms of the virus in Kozhikode and neighbouring Malappuram districts. But it has not yet been confirmed if these deaths were due to Nipah, health department sources said.
Three more nurses from the EMS Memorial Cooperative hospital at Perambra have been reportedly taken to Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode. They had attended to the Nipah-virus affected patients in the early stage. However, there is no confirmation that they have contracted the dreaded disease.
Not just Nipah, dengue too poses a threat to Kasaragod
Even as Nipah scare grips Kerala, reports of dengue fever spreading in Kasaragod have emerged.
The number of confirmed dengue fever patients in the district this year has reached 65. According to official figures, 361 fever patients are undergoing treatment.
Central team in Kerala
The Centre on Monday rushed a high-level team from the National Centre for Disease - Control (NCDC), including its director, Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh and head of epidemiology, Dr S K Jain, to Kerala.
The team visited Changarothu and Perambra from where the virus was first reported and took stock of the situation. An expert team from AIIMS will visit Kozhikode on Tuesday.
Just another infection?
Atul Gogia, senior consultant, department of medicine, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said: "Nipah virus is just another viral infection which affects the respiratory and central nervous systems with symptoms like drowsiness. Like most other viral infections, Nipah, too, has no treatment and can only be managed through intensive supportive care."
Gogia said the virus was spread by fruit bats, which are usually found in forests, but due to urbanisation, sometimes they were found even in cities.
While he did not rule out the possibility of an infected person travelling to other parts of the country and spreading the disease, he said there is no threat to other parts of the country, including north India and Delhi, and there was no need to panic.
The senior doctor, however, said people living in areas inhabited by bats or wildlife animals should be alert as there can be other infections that can afflict them.
On high alert
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the government was handling the issue with 'utmost seriousness'.
He said the health department was taking all steps to ensure that the virus does not spread.
"All efforts are also being made to ensure that more lives are not lost," Pinarayi said.
Instructions have been issued to private hospitals not to deny treatment to those reaching hospitals with fever, he said. The state has been put on high alert and two control rooms have also been opened.
The health minister said peripheral hospitals in the vicinity of Kozhikode Medical College Hospital have been asked to set up isolation wards and if they have patients with symptoms of the virus, they should be directed to the medical college.
What is Nipah virus?
Nipah virus (NiV) infection is a zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans. The natural host of the virus are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family, Pteropus genus.
NiV was first identified during an outbreak of disease that took place in Kampung Sungai Nipah in Malaysia during 1998. Then, pigs were the intermediate hosts.
However, in subsequent NiV outbreaks, there were no intermediate hosts.
Most of those infected people were workers at pig breeding centres. The virus can also pass on to humans from fruits that have been touched by bats. It could spread from infected people to others. No vaccine have been developed yet.
The disease begins with breathing difficulty, terrible headache and fever and progresses to brain fever. Death rate among infected people is 74.5 per cent.
Transmission of NiV takes place through direct contact with infected bats, pigs or from other NiV-infected people.
(With inputs from PTI, IANS)
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