Kerala Nipah deaths: 7 villages declared containment zones, schools closed

Mangalore Today News Network

Kozhikode, Sep 13, 2023: The Kerala government on Wednesday announced that seven village panchayats in Kerala’s Kozhikode, where two people died due to the Nipah virus, were declared as containment zones. The government also announced restrictions and measures to prevent the spread of the infection.

 

The move came after four Nipah cases were confirmed in four people, including a nine-year-old boy, in Kozhikode district, following which an alert was sounded by the state health ministry. Authorities shut down some schools and offices in the affected areas.

Kerala Health Minister Veena George said in the state Assembly that the Nipah virus strain was the Bangladesh variant that spreads from human to human and has a high mortality rate, though it is less infectious.

Earlier, outbreaks of Nipah virus in the state took place in 2018 and 2021.

An official from Kerala’s health ministry said over 130 people had been so far tested for the Nipah virus, which is transmitted to humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected bats, pigs or other people, Reuters reported.

Amid the Nipah alert, teams from the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, were scheduled to arrive in Kerala and set up a mobile lab at Kozhikode Medical College to conduct tests on the virus and a survey of the bats, according to PTI.

NO TRAVEL TO CONTAINMENT ZONES, SHOPS SELLING ESSENTIALS TO REMAIN OPEN

In a Facebook post, Kozhikode District Collector A Geetha said the seven village panchayats declared as containment zones were -- Atanchery, Maruthonkara, Tiruvallur, Kuttiyadi, Kayakkodi, Villyapalli and Kavilumpara.

No one will be allowed to travel in and out of 43 wards of the seven village panchayats declared as containment zones until further notice, the official said. She said the police were asked to cordon off the affected areas.

Shops selling essential items and medicines will, however, be permitted to function. Stores selling essential goods will remain open from 7 am to 5 pm, while no time bar was given for health centres and pharmacies.

The collector said local self-government institutions and village offices will be allowed to function with minimal staff. Banks, other government or quasi-government institutions, educational institutions, and anganwadis will be shut, she added.

In the containment zones, people should wear masks, use alcohol-based sanitisers and maintain social distancing. No buses or vehicles plying on national highways would be allowed to stop in the affected areas.

Earlier, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan urged people not to panic and to take precautions instead after the Nipah virus deaths were confirmed in Kozhikode, PTI reported.

"Everyone should strictly follow the instructions of the health department and the police and fully cooperate with the restrictions," he said.

MORE TEAMS TO VISIT KERALA FOR NIPAH SURVEY

In the state Assembly, Veena George said apart from the NIV Pune teams, a group of epidemiologists from Chennai would reach Kerala today to conduct a survey.

The minister also informed the House that an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) team also agreed to fly down the monoclonal antibodies that are required to treat Nipah patients.

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 spread of the Nipah virus.

The death of the first person, on August 30, was initially considered a death due to 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.

WHAT IS NIPAH VIRUS?

The Nipah virus, which belongs to the group of zoonotic viruses, was first discovered in 1999 following an outbreak of disease in pigs and people in Singapore and Malaysia.

The infection is generally transmitted through fruit bats but can also be spread through pigs and animals. It can also be spread through contaminated food.

Courtesy: India Today