Authorities in India’s southern Kerala state are racing to contain an outbreak of the Nipah virus. The virus, which is not related to the coronavirus, but is far deadlier, killed a 12-year-old boy in Kerala over the weekend, prompting stepped-up efforts to trace his contacts. New infections have been confirmed.
The boy was hospitalized a week ago with a high fever, according to CBS News. His condition worsened and doctors suspected inflammation of his brain (encephalitis). Blood samples confirmed the Nipah infection. He died early Sunday morning.
Contact tracing revealed that 188 people had come into contact with the boy, according to the state’s health minister, Veena George. Of that number, 20 were considered high-risk primary contacts — mainly family members, all of whom were being held under strict quarantine or hospitalized.
Two healthcare workers who had come into contact with the boy were already showing symptoms and have been hospitalized as of Monday.
This is the second time in three years that a Nipah virus outbreak has been reported in Kerala, which is also reeling under a high rate of COVID-19 infections. Of the close to 40,000 new coronavirus cases in India every day, Kerala accounts for about 68 percent of them.
Symptoms of te Nipah virus often start mild but grow to include high fever and respiratory issues before devolving further to include brain swelling which can lead to coma and death.
While the Nipah virus is rarer than the coronavirus, it is deadlier, with a 40 to 75 percent fatality rate, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
What is the Nipah virus?
Like the conoravirus, the Nipah virus is a zoonotic virus – meaning it can be transmitted from animals to humans. The Nipah virus can also be transmitted through contaminated food or directly between people.
Nipah, or NiV is a member of the family Paramyxoviridae, genus Henipavirus. The animal host reservoir for NiV is the fruit bat (genus Pteropus), also known as the flying fox.
Infected fruit bats can spread the disease to people or other animals, such as pigs. People can become infected if they have close contact with an infected animal or its body fluids (such as saliva or urine).
Nipah was first discovered in 1999 following an outbreak of disease in pigs and people in Malaysia and Singapore. This outbreak resulted in nearly 300 human cases and more than 100 deaths, while over 1 million pigs were killed to help control the outbreak.
There have not been any further outbreaks of the disease in Malaysia and Singapore since 1999, however, after being identified in Bangladesh in 2001, there have been aqnnual outbreaks ever since.
The big worry for health authorities is that Nipah can now be transmitted from person-to-person during an outbreak, raising concerns about the potential for Nipah to cause a global pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
