Fever outbreak: NIV sends a second team to Kerala

Even as the Armed Forces were called to fight the outbreak of chikungunya in Kerala, the National Institute of Virology (NIV) has sent a second team to the state to study the complications being reported. So far, the NIV has received 35 samples from Kerala and are sequencing the virus. The results are expected in a day or two, researchers said.

The chikungunya virus made a comeback after 32 years last year and infected around 13 lakh people in the country. According to Deputy Director of NIV Dr V Arankalle, a virus of an African genotype had caused the outbreak last year. There are complications attached, like people are also getting infected with encephalitis and renal failure. “Hence, we want to study the strain of the virus,” Arankalle said.

According to reports, the present outbreak has seen a fairly large number of people getting infected. Chikungunya virus is highly infectious and disabling. It is responsible for extensive Aedes aegypti transmitted urban disease in Africa and is also the cause for the epidemic in Asia. The crippling arthralgia and frequent arthritis that accompany the fever and other systemic symptoms are clinically distinct.

While a ten-member high level team from the Armed Forces Medical College is touring the fever-affected parts of the state and is assessing the causes of the outbreak and its spread in Kerala, the NIV is distributing diagnostic test kits to the state health authorities.