NEW DELHI: A fourth member of the same Indian family has died from the rare Nipah virus, officials said today, as authorities scramble to contain an outbreak that has claimed 11 lives.
V. Moosa, who died today in a hospital in the southwest state of Kerala, had two sons and a sister-in-law succumb to the same deadly infection spread by fruit bats last week.
“He was on ventilator support for a week and died today morning,” Kerala state health director Sarita R. L. told AFP of Moosa, 60.
Dead bats were found in a well at their home in Kozhikode district – the epicenter of the viral outbreak that has authorities on high alert. A nurse who treated one of Moosa’s sons also died, leaving a heart-wrenching note for her family.
“Each and every person who was in contact with any suspected patient is being monitored,” Sarita said. Two other confirmed cases of Nipah virus have been detected and the patients are being treated in hospital, she said.
It was unclear whether these patients came into contact with Moosa’s family or contracted it elsewhere.
Relevant Piece Published Earlier: The death toll from an outbreak of the rare Nipah virus in southern India has risen to at least 10, officials said today, with another 90 people quarantined to try to stem the spread of the disease.
Authorities in Kerala state have ordered emergency measures to control the virus, which is spread by fruit bats. Three of the fatalities are members of the same family – dead bats were found in a well at their home. “We sent 18 samples for testing.
Out of this 12 tested positive. Ten of those who tested positive have died and the remaining two are undergoing treatment,” a health official in Kerala’s Kozhikode district, the centre of the outbreak, told AFP.
More than 90 people who have come into contact with those who died have been isolated, authorities said. Nipah has killed more than 260 people in Malaysia, Bangladesh and India since 1998 and has a mortality rate of nearly 70 percent, according to WHO.
There is no vaccination for the virus which induces flu-like symptoms that lead to an agonising encephalitis and coma. The WHO has named Nipah as one of the eight priority diseases that could cause a global epidemic, alongside Ebola and Zika.
