Finance
Thiruvananthapuram: Teams from National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune would arrive in Kerala during the day to set up a mobile lab at Kozhikode Medical College to test for Nipah and carry out survey of bats, the state government said in the assembly today.
The move comes in the wake of Nipah infection being confirmed in four persons in Kozhikode district of the state.
Responding to a query regarding the Nipah infection in the assembly, State Health Minister Veena George said that the virus strain seen in Kerala was the Bangladesh variant that spreads from human to human and has a high mortality rate, though it is less infectious.
Ms George further said that besides the teams from NIV, Pune, a group of epidemiologists would reach Kerala today from Chennai to carry out a survey.
Additionally, she informed the House that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has agreed to airlift the monoclonal antibodies needed for treating Nipah patients.
The minister was responding to a query by CPI MLA P Balachandran during the Question-Answer hour regarding the measures taken to deal with the Nipah virus which has killed two and infected two others in Kozhikode.
Ms. George stated that the Health department took numerous steps to prevent the spread of the brain-damaging virus, including conducting surveillance, tracing contacts, categorizing individuals into low and high risk, establishing isolation facilities, delineating containment zones, and procuring medicines from ICMR for infected individuals.
Authorities have declared seven village panchayats in Kerala’s Kozhikode district – Atanchery, Maruthonkara, Tiruvallur, Kuttiyadi, Kayakkodi, Villyapalli, and Kavilumpara – as containment zones.
Immediately after confirming the Nipah virus infection in Kozhikode district on Tuesday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan urged people not to panic and advised them to take precautions instead.
“Everyone should strictly follow the instructions of the health department and the police and fully cooperate with the restrictions,” he had said.
One of those infected with the virus was a nine-year-old boy.
Initially, they considered the first person’s death on August 30 as resulting from the comorbidity of liver cirrhosis, but on Tuesday, they detected two positive cases: the nine-year-old boy, who is already in ICU, and his 24-year-old brother-in-law.
