Tamil Nadu Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine has issued an alert at areas bordering the neighbouring state of Kerala after two deaths due to the deadly Nipah virus were confirmed there. On September 12, Kerala announced that two persons who had been ill with “unnatural fever” had died due to infection from the Nipah virus.
Following this, TS Selvanivayagam, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Tamil Nadu, said in a statement, “In view of two Nipah virus cases reported from Kerala, passengers from Kerala will be screened at border check posts by a health team. Teams have been deployed round the clock in six districts of Tamil Nadu that share borders with Kerala.”
It is to be noted that as of Tuesday, September 13, the number of confirmed cases has gone up to four including the two patients who lost their lives. Another two patients remain under treatment while at least one of them is in critical condition.
Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Theni, Tenkasi and Kanyakumari districts share borders with Kerala. The deputy directors of health services have also been directed to screen all symptomatic fever cases at the borders while using necessary protective equipment.
Additionally, Tamil Nadu minister for Health and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian interacted with the media at Gudalur in the Nilgiri district and informed people that there was no need for panic over the Nipah outbreak in Kerala. The minister also said that screening would be done for those with fever symptoms.
The recent cases in Kerala come five years after a deadly outbreak claimed the lives of 17 people out of the 18 cases reported in the state. The ICMR-National Institute of Virology in Pune, on September 12, found the presence of the virus in the bodily samples collected from two people, aged 49 and 40, who recently died in a private hospital in Kozhikode. It is to be recalled that though a case of Nipah Virus (NiV) infection was reported in Kochi in 2019 as well, no casualties were reported at the time. In September 2021, another outbreak was reported in Kozhikode, where a 12-year-old boy succumbed to the infection. There were no more deaths at the time.
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Kerala Nipah outbreak: Four cases confirmed, containment zones declared
Nipah virus returns to Kerala: Precautions to take and symptoms to look out for