NIV teams to arrive in Kerala following Nipah confirmation; virus is Bangladesh variant: Health Minister

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 on Wednesday.

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.

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, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has agreed to fly down the monoclonal antibodies that are required to treat Nipah patients, she told the House.

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.

George said surveillance, contact tracing, categorising them into low and high risk, setting up isolation facilities for them, demarcating containment zones and procuring medicines from ICMR for those infected, were some of the numerous steps taken by the health department to prevent spread of the brain damaging virus.

Seven village panchayats -- Atanchery, Maruthonkara, Tiruvallur, Kuttiyadi, Kayakkodi, Villyapalli, and Kavilumpara -- in Kerala's Kozhikode district have been declared as containment zones.

Soon after the Nipah virus infection was confirmed in Kozhikode district on Tuesday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had urged people not to panic and to take precaution 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.

The death of the first person, on August 30, was initially considered a death due to the comorbidity of liver cirrhosis, but his son, the nine-year-old boy who is already in ICU, and his 24-year-old brother-in-law are the two positive cases that were detected on Tuesday.