Authorities in a region in southern India have raised the alert after confirming the Re-emergence of deadly Nipah virus (NiV), which has caused at least two deaths and three injuries in this new outbreak, while measures are taken to prevent the spread.
Authorities have closed some schools in at least seven villages in the Kozhikode district of the southern state of Kerala, which have been declared as containment zones, says Kerala Health Minister Veena George in a parliamentary session, according to the NDTV news channel.
Experts have been deployed to the southern Indian state of Kerala to collect fluid samples from bats and fruit trees, as both can carry the virus. “We are doing tests on human beings (…) and, at the same time, experts are collecting samples of fluids from forested areas that could be the hot spot for the spread,” said Veena George, state Health Minister.
After call an emergency meeting To analyze the situation, George assures that they are increasing the response capacity in Kozhikode, where mobile units will be installed to reinforce the capacity of medical centers and epidemiological studies will be carried out, he adds.
The state has also issued a series of recommendations to prevent contagion, as well as a prevention plan in case of suffering symptoms from this virus, which so far has caused the death of at least two people, the country’s Minister of Health, Mansukh Mandaviya, tells the press. India detected the first outbreak of this virus in June 2018, when 17 deaths were recorded precisely in the affected districts of Kozhikode and Mallapuram, in Kerala.