2021 Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala

2021 Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala
Disease	Nipah virus
Location	Kozhikode
First outbreak	Kerala, India
Dates	5 September 2021 - 29 September 2021
Confirmed cases	1
Deaths	1
Fatality rate	100%

The 2021 Kerala Nipah virus outbreak was an outbreak of the zoonotic Nipah virus in Kerala.^[1] The outbreak was localized in the Pazhur village located within the Chathamangalam Gram panchayat in the Kozhikode district of Kerala, and it claimed one life.^[2] The outbreak was contained and declared over on 5 September 2021.^[3][4][5] This was the third Nipah Virus outbreak in Kerala,^[6][7] the earlier being in 2018 and 2019. The Central Government has rushed a team of the National Centre for Disease Control to the state, which will provide technical support. Relatives of the dead boy and all those involved in his treatment have been put under quarantine.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

Timeline

The index case of the outbreak was reported at a private hospital in Kozhikode on 5 September 2021, a 12-year-old boy from Chathamangalam, in the Kozhikode district of Kerala, who died after testing positive for a Nipah virus infection.^[13][14] The report of this new Nipah infection, which spreads through saliva of fruit bats, comes three years after a previous outbreak that had claimed 17 lives in the state.^{[15][16][17][18]} Following the death of Nipa, the Chathamangamalam Grama Panchayat and the adjoining areas were placed under strict control by the Health Department and the Police. Those in close contact with the child were placed in isolation. and all of them had a negative test result.

2021 Nipah virus outbreak in Kozhikode, Kerala - 3 kilometers buffer zone around the epicentre.

Virology and epidemiology

The presence of the Nipah virus in the patient was confirmed by RT-PCR tests; all three samples collected from the child (plasma, serum and CSF) were found to be positive in tests done at the National Institute of Virology Pune.^[19]

References