India keeps surveillance for a dozen Nipah virus cases in the Kozhikode district, in the southern state of Kerala.
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Eleven contacts of the 12-year-old boy who died due to Nipah virus have shown symptoms of the disease, said Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Monday, according to NDTV.
Ms. George said the government has identified 251 people who came in contact with the boy and 129 of them are healthcare workers. They are said to be in a stable condition.
Kerala Health Department formulated a disease control plan and a lab was set up by the Pune National Virology Institute at Kozhikode Medical College Hospital, in addition to studies to trace the source of the infection.
The Nipah virus, or NiV, was first discovered after an outbreak in pigs and humans in Malaysia and Singapore in 1999. It resulted in nearly 300 humans getting infected, of which 100 died. It also had a significant economic impact, as over 1 million pigs were slaughtered to help staunch the outbreak. Annual outbreaks of this virus are common in Asian countries such as Bangladesh and India.
Some symptoms of NiV to look out for are fever, headache, fainting, nausea, chocking, stomach pain, vomiting, fatigue, shortness of breath, drowsiness or confusion and blurred vision. Encephalitis and seizures could also occur in severe cases and progress to coma within 24 to 48 hours.
The underlying cause of outbreaks has been cited as direct contact with infected pigs, other infected animals, contaminated fruits (half-eaten fruits left by fruit bats), and even direct contact with sick people.
Though there is currently no vaccine against Nipah, George noted that sometime in the next week, the Indian Council of Medical Research would obtain monoclonal antibody treatments from Australia, which have been found to be effective against the illness, as well as the related Hendra virus.
While Nipah and Hendra belong to a different family of pathogens than the virus behind COVID-19, monoclonal antibody therapies have been used to treat the latter illness as well. Last May, India’s drugs regulator gave emergency-use approval to an antibody cocktail known as REGEN-COV2, hoping to reduce the risk of severe illness and hospitalization among COVID patients. ■