Kerala is facing a serious health concern as yet another case of the deadly Nipah virus was confirmed earlier this week. The latest fatality was reported on September 9—this was the sixth such case in the state since 2018. This time, the victim was a 24-year-old man from Malappuram whose house is barely 20 km from Pandikkad, where a 14-year-old had died this July.
The victim was diagnosed with the virus during a test at the Kozhikode Medical College that was later confirmed by the National Institute of Virology, Pune. The health department has kept nearly 175 people under observation. The district collector has notified containment zones and holidays have been declared for all educational institutions and masks have been made mandatory in the region.
Nipah, named after a Malaysian village where it was first identified in 1998, is transmitted to humans mainly from fruit bats, pigs, contaminated fruits or other humans.
The symptoms include headache, muscle pain, vomiting, pneumonia and neurological issues such as encephalitis. It often goes undetected as it mimics the symptoms for pneumonia and encephalitis. No vaccines or drugs are available for it yet.
The first Nipah cases in Kerala were reported in Kozhikode district in May 2018, resulting in the death of 17 people in the season. But there were instances of recovery, too.
The virus came back in 2021 and took the life of a 13-year-old boy, again in Kozhikode. In 2023, the district saw six more cases and two fatalities. The recurrence in the Kozhikode-Malappuram area remains puzzling. Despite efforts, the root causes of the localised impact are still unclear.
This has hindered effective long-term management. Investigations into the outbreaks have detected antibodies for Nipah in fruit bats, but no conclusive source has been identified beyond this preliminary link. Understanding the root cause of the disease would partly lie in deeper knowledge of the region’s wildlife.
It’s important to trace the link between animal and human transmissions to develop effective prevention strategies for a virus that is estimated to have a fatality rate as high as 75 percent, with the potential to trigger a pandemic. So the concerned central and state agencies should work together to understand the epidemiology of the disease.