Nipah Virus Outbreak in Kozhikode, Kerala, India

On May 5th, 2015, in a village area of Kerala, India, a person named Mohammad Sabith(23) died of fever. He was admitted in the hospital. The Health department of the State of Kerala did not expect what was coming to hit them. Two weeks later, his brother was also seen showing the same symptoms. He too was admitted in the hospital. One of the elder lady in the family also got sick. This time the Health department became alarmed and they took the blood samples of the patients. They did not collect the blood sample of the first patient since they had no clue about the cause behind his death. They send the samples to Department of Virus Reasearch, Manipal Academy of Higher Education. The Health Department did not stop there. They took extreme care in isolating the patients and stopping any chance of spreading this virus.

On May 20th, 2018, the result from Manipal came which showed that the outbreak was nothing but Nipah virus. By this time the death toll has increased. One of the nurse who attended Mohammad Sabith also died from the infection. This caused massive fear in the people. The outbreak happened in Changroth Panchayath, Perambra, Kozhikode district of Kerala. Kerala has one of the finest Health care system in India. It was because of this standards in Health Care at grass root level that the outbreak was stopped at an early stage.

Nippah Virus is a deadly virus. NiV spreads from animals to humans, animals to animals and humans to humans. It spreads through body fluids. However it is never reported that it spreads through air making it easier to quarantine the patients and stop further spread.

There is no doubt that the Outbreak of Nipah virus has caused tremendous fear and panic in people. It was seen that the staff working in Health Departments were treated differently by the public fearing they could be infected as well. People were seen to avoid Nurses and Doctors in public transport. It was such a bad scene as this reduces morale of these Nurses and Doctors.

What is more alarming is that the Health authorities are yet to determine the source of this Nipah virus. They first thought that the virus came from bats just like the case in Malaysia which happened decades ago killing hundreds of people. Now they are yet to prove that the virus outbreak was indeed caused by bats.