Schools, offices and public transport were shut down in parts of India last week in efforts to halt the spread of the rare and deadly Nipah virus, which has already killed two people.
Two adults and a child were still infected in hospital and another 700 being tested for the virus, which is spread through contact with the bodily fluids of infected bats, pigs or people, a state health official said.
Reuters reports that more than 700 people, including 153 health workers, were undergoing tests to check the spread of the virus in the southern state of Kerala.
“More people could be tested …isolation facilities will be provided,” Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala, said, while asking people to avoid public gatherings in the Kozhikode district for 10 days.
Two infected people have died since 30 August in Kerala’s fourth outbreak of the virus since 2018, forcing authorities to declare containment zones in at least eight villages.
Health Minister Veena George said the virus detected in Kerala was the same as one found earlier in Bangladesh, a strain that spreads from human to human with a high mortality rate but which has a history of being less infectious.
State epidemiologists were using antivirals and monoclonal antibodies to treat three people infected, including a medical worker.
Strict isolation rules have been adopted, with medical staff being quarantined after contact with the infected.
The Nipah virus was first identified in 1999 during an outbreak of illness among pig farmers and others in close contact with the animals in Malaysia and Singapore.
Outbreaks are sporadic: previous infections in South Asia were linked to people drinking date-palm sap contaminated with bat excreta.
The first victim’s native village, Maruthonkara, is close to a 120ha forest that is home to several bat species. During the 2018 Nipah outbreak, fruit bats from the same area tested positive for the virus.
In Kerala’s first Nipah outbreak, 21 of the 23 people infected died. Outbreaks in 2019 and 2021 killed two people.
A Reuters investigation in May identified parts of Kerala as among the places most at risk globally for outbreaks of bat viruses, especially as extensive deforestation and urbanisation have brought people and wildlife into closer contact.
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