42 more samples test negative for Nipah in Kerala

There was relief for health officials in Kerala on Sunday as 42 more samples including those of high-risk symptomatic persons tested came back negative for the Nipah virus. As of now, six cases of the zoonotic virus have been reported in the state, including two deaths and four others under treatment.

“It’s a relief that 23 of the 42 samples that were tested and came back negative were of high-risk symptomatic persons. Results of a few more samples are awaited. 19 teams of the health department are continuing their work in the field today. Most of those on the contact list of the infected persons have been identified,” said health minister Veena George.

“We will find the remaining contacts by tracking their mobile networks with the help of police. Because, when we find certain persons, they claim that they were never there at that place. The gaps in the contact list will be filled with the help of police,” she added.

The minister said that teams of central health officials will carry out inspections at the epicentre of the 2018 Nipah outbreak and find out if there have been any ecological changes. Officials from the National Institute of Virology, Pune and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Chennai are also conducting studies in the field today.

Those under treatment in the hospitals are stable and among them, the nine-year-old boy who was on ventilator support has shown signs of improvement, the minister said.

“The incubation period of the virus is 21 days, which means that a person is likely to start showing symptoms within that period of being infected from another person. But we are observing a double incubation period of 42 days, as per medical science. This means we must continue to remain alert and our surveillance mechanisms must be active for 42 days since the last positive case was detected,” George said.

“We are also carrying out genomic sequencing of the virus to get more fact-based results out of this outbreak,” she said.