Nipah virus in Kerala: 9 panchayats in Kozhikode district declared containment zones as contact list expands to 789

As many as 153 health workers have figured in the contact list of the confirmed cases.

Meanwhile, the state government Wednesday scaled up control measures. A state-level control room was opened, nine panchayats in Kozhikode district were declared containment zones, and 800-odd persons brought under observation after they figured in the contact lists of the infected persons.

Staff members install a sign reading “Nipah isolation ward, entry strictly prohibited” at a hospital where a ward is being prepared for suspected Nipah virus patients in Kozhikode. (Reuters)

After a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to review the situation, the government imposed social distancing in Kozhikode district for the next 10 days. All public functions in the district would be suspended and social gatherings would be allowed only with restricted participation and with prior permission from police.

After the meeting, Health Minister Veena George said 789 persons who are in the contact list of the confirmed cases have been identified. Since the route maps of the infected persons have been published, the contact list would go up further. Of them, 77 persons are in the high-risk category and 17 persons have been isolated in hospitals in Kozhikode. One of the infected cases, a nine-year-old boy, is on life support. ICMR was requested to send the monoclonal antibody required for his treatment, she said.

Official sources said efforts are on to identify the source of the infection. As fruit bats are considered a reservoir of the virus and animal to human infection is suspected, samples of fruits found partially eaten by bats were collected from Ayancheri and Maruthonkara, the villages of the dead victims. Local panchayat officials conducted a door-to-door survey in the villages.

A team of doctors from the National Centre for Disease Control visited the control room and two other teams, one from ICMR-Pune and other from the Union Health Ministry, would reach Kozhikode on Wednesday night to help the state government tackle the situation.