TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Five dead in India from Nipah virus, dozens quarantined
Change Size
Animal Husbandry department and Forest officials inspect a well to to catch bats at Changaroth in Kozhikode in the Indian state of Kerala on May 21, 2018. A deadly virus carried mainly by fruit bats has killed at least three people in southern India, sparking a statewide health alert May 21. Eight other deaths in the state of Kerala are being investigated for possible links to the Nipah virus, which has a 70 percent mortality rate.
(AFP/File)
A
deadly virus carried by fruit bats has killed at least five people in southern India and more than 90 people are in quarantine, a top health official said Tuesday.
The death toll rose from three overnight and authorities ordered emergency measures to control the outbreak.
"We can confirm that five people have died from the Nipah virus," Kerala state health surveillance officer K.J. Reena told AFP.
Nine people have been admitted to hospital with symptoms resembling the virus, which the World Health Organisation says is fatal in 70 percent of cases, Reena added. One of the nine has tested positive for Nipah.
"We traced 94 people who had come in contact with the ones who died and they have been quarantined as a precaution," Reena added.
There is no vaccination for Nipah which has killed more than 260 people in Malaysia, Bangladesh and India in outbreaks since 1998.
The virus induces flu-like symptoms that lead to an agonising encephalitis and coma.
Media reports said 10 people had died in Kerala but officials told AFP the cause of other suspicious deaths was still being confirmed.
Three members of the same family are among the fatalities. Dead bats were found in a well of the family's house in Kozhikode district, previously known as Calicut.
Masked health workers sealed off the well with fluorescent nets.
A nursing assistant who had treated the infected persons and was among those who died has been hailed as a hero by authorities.
Lini Puthussery, a mother of two, was cremated even before her family members could bid a final goodbye because of fears the virus could spread.
In a final note she scribbled for her husband in a hospital isolation unit, Puthussery urged her husband to take care of the children.
"I don't think I will be able to see you again. Sorry. Please take care of our children," she said according to the News18 TV network.
