Thiruvananthapuram: Nipah has surfaced in Kerala again for the third time, after a gap of one year. A 12-year-old boy, who was admitted to a hospital in Kerala’s Kozhikode with symptoms of the Nipah virus, passed away on Sunday morning.
The samples of the boy, which were sent to the Pune National Institute of Virology, confirmed the presence of Nipah virus.
The first Nipah virus disease (NiV) outbreak in South India was reported from Kozhikode district of Kerala on May 19, 2018. There have been 17 deaths and 18 confirmed cases as of June 1, 2018.
Nipah is a zoonotic virus and can be transmitted to humans from animals such as bats and pigs. The disease has a high fatality rate and there’s no known treatment or vaccine available.
Comments are closed.