Amid COVID war, how Kerala quickly swung to fight Nipah virus battle

Kerala is racing to contain the Nipah virus after two healthcare workers, who are among 20 high-risk contacts of a 12-year-old boy who died from the infection on Sunday morning, developed symptoms.

Explaining the measures after chairing a high-level meeting to take stock of the situation, Health Minister Veena George said, “We have identified 188 contacts till now. The surveillance team has marked 20 of them as high-risk. Two of these high-risk contacts have symptoms. Both are health workers. One works with a private hospital, while the other is a staff member of Kozhikode Medical College hospital.”

The high-risk contacts will be shifted to the Kozhikode Medical College by Sunday evening.

Other efforts include converting the pay ward at the Medical College Hospital into a dedicated Nipah ward, and formation of a 3 km strict containment zone around the deceased boy’s home. Nearby areas are also under surveillance and all contacts of the boy have been asked to remain in quarantine.

The health department has also opened two dedicated phone lines at the Nipah ward and formed 16 teams for various purposes, including contact-tracing, surveillance, and tracing the origin of this infection.

The boy died at a hospital on Sunday, after his samples, which were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune, confirmed presence of the virus.

“We have asked the Pune NIV authorities to arrange a point-of-care testing facility at the Kozhikode Medical College hospital. The NIV team will reach here and do the needful. If in the initial test the patient is found positive, then the sample will be sent to Pune NIV again for confirmation. That result will be made available within 12 hours,” George said.

Sunday’s meeting also took stock of availability of medicines in the hospital, while the health department will publish the child’s route map indicating the time and his location in the area in the last two weeks. He had developed a fever on August 27 and was first admitted to a local clinic. Later, he was taken to a private hospital from where he was brought to the Medical College Hospital. However, he was shifted to another private hospital afterwards.

With inputs from Agencies

Also read: The anatomy of Nipah virus 2.0 — the Kerala battle