Kerala:The Kozhikode district of Kerala, where two individuals died as a result of the Nipah virus, has seven village panchayats that the Kerala government named containment zones on Wednesday. Restrictions and other actions were also declared by the government to stop the sickness from spreading. The action was taken after the state health ministry issued an alert following the confirmation of four Nipah illnesses in four individuals, including a nine-year-old kid, in the Kozhikode region. Some offices and schools in the impacted areas were closed by the authorities.According to Kerala’s Health Minister Veena George, the Nipah virus strain is a Bangladeshi variation that travels from person to person and has a high fatality rate despite being less contagious. In the past, the state experienced Nipah virus epidemics in 2018 and 2021. Over 130 individuals have reportedly undergone testing for the Nipah virus, which is spread to humans by direct contact with the body fluids of infected bats, pigs, or other individuals, according to a health ministry official in Kerala, according to Reuters.Teams from the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, were slated to travel to Kerala during the Nipah alert and set up a mobile lab at Kozhikode Medical College to carry out testing for the virus and a census of the bat population.
