42-year-old woman tests positive for Nipah virus in Kerala, Health Minister heads to Malappuram
The woman was admitted to a private hospital on May 2 with symptoms of encephalitis. Her samples were dispatched to NIV-Pune, which on Thursday confirmed the Nipah infection, health department officials in Malappuram said.
State Health Minister Veena George will visit Malappuram to oversee containment measures, which the state has been implementing since 2018 — the year Nipah was first reported in Kerala.
Kerala has had five Nipah outbreaks since 2018. Only six people who tested positive have survived — one in Kozhikode in 2018, another in Kochi in 2019, and four cases in Kozhikode in 2023.
In 2018, 17 of 18 infected people died. Another died in 2021. In 2023, two Nipah deaths were reported. Last year, Malappuram reported two deaths in July and September. With that, the total number of Nipah deaths in Kerala since 2018 stands at 22.
All the outbreaks in Kerala were reported in the May-September period, which encompasses the rainy season in the state. The prevalence of viral fever and influenza during this season makes early diagnosis of Nipah a challenge.
A study on the 2018 outbreak had found that the index case got the infection from bats, while the others got it from hospital. The virus reported in Kerala belonged to a Bangladeshi strain, which is known for a mortality rate that can go up to 90%.
A field survey conducted by the National Institute of Virology (NIV) and the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) after the Nipah death of July last year indicated that fruit bats were the source of that infection as well. The presence of antibodies of the virus was detected in fruit bats' samples collected from Pandikkad village, where the victim was from.
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