Authorities in southern India are racing to contain a new outbreak of the Nipah virus which has killed two people.
The state of Kerala has confirmed five cases of the disease, which can mild to severe symptoms – such as acute respiratory syndrome and brain inflammation which can leave patients comatose in a matter of days.
One of them, a 9-year-old child, remains on ventilation, according to a local government press statement.
Schools in the affected area have been shut down and some 950 known contacts of the seven known carriers have been ordered to undertake testing.
The current Nipah outbreak is the fourth to have occurred in Kerala since 2018, when 17 people died and thousands recovered in quarantine.
The second outbreak, in 2019, saw no deaths, while the third – taking place in 2021, after the start of the Covid pandemic – saw one 12-year-old boy die.
The virus is on the World Health Organisation’s list of priority pathogens because of its epidemic potential, which means it can spread rapidly among humans in a short space of time.
Outbreaks usually begin with transmission from animals to humans but can also be spread through contaminated food or directly between people, the WHO says.
Its mortality rate is estimated to be between 40% and 75%.
Kerala’s state health minister, Veena George, said the current outbreak involves a strain that as a high mortality rate but is less infectious.
Experts have been sent out to collect samples of fluid from bats and fruit trees in the Kozhikode district, where the cases have so far been limited to.
Ms George told the Reuters news agency: ‘We are testing human beings … and at the same time experts are collecting fluid samples from forested areas that could be the hotspot for the spread.’
The outbreaks of 2018 and 2021 were also limited to Kozhikode, while the 2019 incident was linked to a student in the city of Kochi.
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