A case of the zoonotic disease was identified in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore, two days after a 12-year-old succumbed to the infection in Kerala. Dr. GS Sameeran, District Collector, Coimbatore said: “One case of Nipah virus has been identified in the district. We are taking all precautions. Anyone who comes to a government hospital with a high fever will be tested properly.”
After the boy succumbed to Nipah virus in Kerala, the Tamil Nadu State Health Department has instructed that all travellers coming from Kerala should be screened for the virus. The deputy directors of health services in the nine bordering districts of Tamil Nadu have been alerted. The Minister said health officials of the nine districts to hold fever camps at the entry points in the border districts besides conducting thermal screening of the passengers, testing their saturation levels. The Health Minister Ma Subramanian said, people coming from Kerala must either submit a certificate providing two doses of Covid-19 vaccines or RT PCR negative report. Additionally, the officials in the border districts were informed about the Nipah case in Kerala and were told to conduct screening. Kerala is on its toes to contain the spread of the virus, which is naturally transmitted from vertebrate animals to humans, while human-to-human transmission has also been documented. On Monday, samples of eight people with minor symptoms and Rambutan fruits were sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune for investigation.
