KOZHIKODE: A six-year-old boy who was on treatment for West Nile Fever at Kozhikode Medical College hospital died here on Monday.
Muhammad Shan, hailing from AR Nagar panchayat in Malappuram district was diagnosed with West Nile fever nearly a week ago.
According to District Medical officer, the boy breathed his last at 3 am in the hospital. The body was taken to his house at Azad Nagar colony and buried at a nearby mosque around 10 am.
Malappuram district medical officer Dr K Sakeena, Thahalsildar and other officers were present.
A meeting of District collector and District Medical officers have been scheduled for today evening to evaluate the situation.
A central medical team had visited the house of the boy on March 15. After the meeting, the team had also visited the boy at the hospital.
Following doubts of WNV, the Centre had dispatched a multi-disciplinary team from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to assess the spread of WNV in Kerala.
The Union Health Ministry's decision came after the six-year-old was feared to be infected with WNV, a mosquito-borne disease mostly reported in the US.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has also been alerted and a close watch is being maintained both at the central and state level.
There, however, are no reports of the spread of the virus to any other parts of the country.
West Nile fever is spread by Culex mosquitoes and the infection could be confirmed only if the second samples tests positive.
Symptoms include fever, headache, tiredness, body aches, nausea, vomiting, occasionally a skin rash on the body, and swollen lymph glands.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that WNV is transmitted to humans through bites from mosquitoes which get infected when they feed on infected birds.
The Kerala health authorities have taken elaborate steps to tackle it.
(With IANS inputs)