Nipah virus kills 12-yr-old, who beat COVID-19 recently, in Kerala's Kozhikode

A 12-year-old boy, who was admitted to a hospital in Kozhikode after showing symptoms of Nipah virus, passed away on Sunday. His samples, which were sent to the Pune National Institute of Virology, confirmed the presence of Nipah virus.

Kerala Health Minister Veena George confirmed the news to CNN-News18 stating that NIV Pune found markers confirming Nipah virus in three separate samples of the child’s blood serum, cerebral spinal fluid, and plasma.

“We got the information late last night. In half an hour itself, we had a health department meeting. We have formed an action plan last night itself,” George told the news channel.

“All primary contacts have been traced and put in isolation. No other contanct has any symptoms so far,” she said.

The New Indian Express , reported that the boy had recently recovered from Covid and was taken to the hospital after he developed a fever again, which would not subside despite all efforts. He was said to have undergone treatment at Kozhikode Medical College Hospital before being admitted to the private hospital on 1 September.

Meanwhile, the Central Government has also rushed a team of National Centre for Disease Control to the state, which will be reaching on Sunday. The team will provide technical support to the state, the ministry said.

Some immediate public health measures have been advised by the Centre which include active case search in the family, families, village and areas with similar topography, especially in Malappuram.

The measures also include active contact tracing for any contacts in the past 12 days, strict quarantine of the contacts and isolation of any suspects and collection and transportation of samples for lab testing, the ministry said.

Nipah virus is spread by saliva of the fruit bats. In 2018 also, there was a Nipah outbreak in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts of Kerala.

With inputs from PTI