THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The articles in The Journal of Infectious Diseases (TJID) and British Medical Journal (BMJ) Global Health, co-authored by Health Secretary Rajeev Sadanandan, mention the death toll as 21, whereas the government figure is 17. The BMJ and TJID published the articles in September and October, respectively.
“The Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala during May-June had claimed 21 lives out of 23 cases, with a case fatality rate of 88.9 per cent,” states the article titled ‘Towards global health security: Response to the May 2018 Nipah virus outbreak linked to Pteropus bats in Kerala, India’ in BMJ Global Health.
The article which lauds the state and Central teams for their collaborative efforts on timely diagnosis, real-time data sharing, sample transport and contact tracing in successfully containing the outbreak also stressed the need for laboratory training, increased diagnostic capacity for Nipah virus and pathogens of high consequence in containing such outbreaks in the future. It also highlights the need for improved hospital infection control and the importance of rapid detection and response.
In the article titled ‘Outbreak Investigation of Nipah Virus Disease in Kerala, India, 2018’ in TJID, it has been stated of the 23 cases identified 18 were laboratory confirmed and 20 had respiratory symptoms. The report also cites the lineage of the NiV responsible for this outbreak was closer to the Bangladesh lineage. This article is also co-authored by Sadanandan and virologist Arun Kumar.
The article further highlights that only the index case was infected in the community and all the remaining cases were due to nosocomial transmission in three different hospitals. This human-to-human transmission pattern is consistent with that of earlier outbreaks in India and Bangladesh.