KOZHIKODE: Giving the state some respite, samples of 36 more people who were suspected to have contracted Nipah tested negative on Wednesday, but a lack of clarity over the origin of the virus continued to be a cause for concern. The total number of people to have tested negative rose to 46. Ten more were shifted to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital, taking the total number of hospitalised people to 68.
“Results of more than 15 samples are awaited,” said Health Minister Veena George. She added that as per Nipah protocol, 42 days of zero cases since reporting the last case are needed to declare that the virus threat is over. At present, 265 people are on the contact list of the deceased 12-year-old boy, who belonged to Pazhoor in Chathamangalam. Among them, 47 are from different districts. As part of door-to-door surveillance, the officials visited 4,995 houses in Chathamangalam panchayat. “It is a good sign that no new contact was added to the list during the process,” Veena said.
Meanwhile, the health department is waiting for the experts from NIV Pune to arrive to figure out the source of infection. “The preliminary report suggests the deceased boy might have got the infection from the bat-bitten rambuttan fruit,” said the minister. Forest Minister A K Saseendran said officials from the forest department will be asked to collect samples from wild boars in the infected area.
In the preliminary assessment of health experts, fruit bats were considered to be the source of the virus. The state animal husbandry department collected droppings of bats and blood samples of goats in the region to check presence of virus in them.
Experts are not ruling out the chances that the deceased boy might have got the infection from another person. To reach a conclusion in this regard, the health authority is checking the recent deaths reported in the region with symptoms similar to Nipah. For the same, details of 35 deaths reported in the local body in the last one month have been collected. The department will also initiate a detailed study on the medical report of the deceased boy.