The toll in the Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala touched 11 with two more persons succumbing on Tuesday. Laboratory tests confirmed the presence of the virus in blood and fluid samples taken from all the victims.
Eight of the dead are from Kozhikode district, including the first three victims from a single family, and three from Malappuram district. According to the office of the District Medical Officer, Kozhikode, 19 persons are under treatment, two of whom are in critical condition.
A team from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) arrived on Tuesday to assist the State Health Department. A National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) team has been camping here since Monday.
Centre assures help
Health Minister K.K. Shylaja told the media the State government had been in touch with the Union Health Ministry, which has promised all possible help.
“A team headed by the director of the NCDC reached the spot today [Tuesday] and another ...of doctors from AIIMS and RML shall be landing tomorrow. The Government of India is fully committed to extending all support ,” Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda said on Twitter.
Ms. Shylaja said that of the 18 samples tested, 12 had returned positive. She, however, said the infection had not yet spread among the community and only those who were in direct contact with the initial victims had contracted it.
As the incubation period is between four and 18 days, the Health Department is monitoring all those who had contact with the deceased. Seventeen persons are under treatment at the Government Medical College Hospital.
Apart from the three members of a single family who first contracted the disease, the other eight victims all were in contact in some way with the first three victims. One of them was a nurse and the others were in the same hospital ward.
The two persons who died on Tuesday were identified as Ashokan, 45, of Chekkiad and Rajan, 52, of Koorachund. Rajan was cremated at the electric crematorium on Mavoor Road in the city. Efforts to cremate Ashokan at the traditional burial ground failed as the labourers refused to cooperate. Later, a mobile crematorium from Ivor Madhom in Thrissur was brought in at the behest of the District Collector.
