Kochi: The deadly Nipah virus has returned to the state after a year with a 23-year-old student testing positive for the zoonotic infection.
Five others were also put under close observation in isolation wards after they exhibited symptoms of the deadly disease on Tuesday.
“We received the report from the National Institute of Virology, Pune, which confirmed the Nipah virus infection. There is no need for panic as we’ve already taken elaborate measures to tackle the emergency,” health minister K. K. Shylaja told reporters here.
Four, including a close friend of him and three nurses who treated him initially, were shifted to the isolation ward of the Kalamassery Medical College with symptoms like fever and sore throat.
An outsider admitted with the disease symptoms was also shifted there. A relative of him, a native of Ezhikkara near North Paravur, too will be moved here shortly.
“We’ve enough stock of Ribavirin tablets. Also, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has given the nod to use the human monoclonal antibody (MAB) tablets procured from Australia in the wake last year’s episode and stored at Pune NIV. The medicine will be brought here tomorrow (Wednesday), and we also have services of two doctors trained in administering the antibody,” she said.
Meanwhile, three samples (blood, urine and throat swabs) of the five admitted to the Isolation ward will be taken and send to the virology labs at Alappuzha, Manipal and Pune on Wednesday morning. The process will be done continuously.
In cases of those with viral encephalitis, cerebrospinal fluid samples will be collected and send for testing.
A list of 311 persons in Ernakulam, Thrissur, Idukki and Kollam districts, was prepared as part of contact tracing, tracking down of those who have interacted with the infected person, and all of them were put under house quarantine. They will be shifted to Isolation wards in hospitals if they exhibit symptoms.
More isolation wards have been opened at places like Kollam, Alappuzha and Thodupuzha besides the existing ones at Ernakulam, Thrissur, Idukki and Kozhikode.
While the incubation period is from four to fourteen days, the suspects will be monitored for over double the period. The condition of the man, a final year student of an engineering college in Thodupuzha, is stable though he is suffering from high fever.
“We’ll soon start the exercise to find out the source of the virus. A six-member team from the Union health ministry has reached the state. A rapid response team too has been formed,” the minister said. There is no vaccine or proven medicine available for the treatment of the Nipah virus infection, though it can be controlled through proper preventive measures.
Even the ‘MAB’, imported from Australia, doses were tested only on 13 persons and under the state-2 trial only. The virus infection outbreak was reported in Kozhikode in May last year with 18 confirmed cases and 17 deaths.
