Five cases of West Nile fever confirmed in Kerala; all infected healthy

Kozhikode, Kerala: Five cases of West Nile fever have been confirmed in the north Kerala district of Kozhikode, health officials said on Tuesday.

The infected persons, which included children, are all fine now and back at their homes with no new cases reported from the areas they live in, an official of the district surveillance team said.

He also said that presently there was one person who is suspected of suffering from the vector-borne infection and is undergoing treatment.

The official said that the samples of those who exhibited symptoms of the disease and had undergone treatment were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune as a routine exercise.

"The results came back now and indicated that they were suffering from West Nile fever. They are all better now," he said.

The West Nile fever is spread by the Culex species of mosquitoes. It was first detected in 1937 in Uganda. The fever was first detected in Kerala in 2011 and a six-year-old boy from Malappuram died due to the fever in 2019.

Thereafter, in May 2022, a 47-year-old man died of the fever in Thrissur district.

The West Nile virus can cause a fatal neurological disease in humans but most of those infected may not show any symptoms. It is mainly transmitted through the bites of infected mosquitoes, according to the state health department.