About 176 students and teachers of a government higher secondary school in Kerala’s Kozhikode district have contracted an unidentified fever.

Since December 1, students and 13 teachers of the Anayamkunnu Government Higher Secondary School in Kozhikode’s Mukkom neighbourhood have reportedly been falling ill. Classes have now been suspended for January 8 and 9 due to the sheer number of absentees who have contracted a fever.

The incident has prompted action from the district medical officer, who confirmed to TNM that there were no serious cases amongst those associated with the school.

“Most of them have reported low grade fever. However, this has been continuing from January 1 to 7. We are yet to ascertain what kind of fever this is. It could be viral. We are also not sure how the students and staff contracted the fever and who patient zero is,” Kozhikode DMO Dr V Jayashree told TNM.

Blood samples of the students and teachers in the school who have contracted the fever have been taken and dispatched to the Manipal Institute of Virology in Karnataka, which specialises in diagnosis of diseases and viral outbreaks.

During the Nipah Virus outbreak in August 2018, samples of those suspected to have contracted the virus were in fact sent to the Manipal Institute of Virology for confirmation.

The Kozhikode district administration is awaiting the results of the tests on the blood samples of the students and teachers who have come down with the fever.

Reports state that measures have also been taken to trace the source of the illness with ASHA workers being dispatched to the houses and neighbourhood of the students and teachers, and identify relatives, acquaintances and neighbours of students who have fallen ill during this time.