Indian Kerala Authority Closes Several Schools To Public Transportation To Confine Nipah Virus

Illustration of the bus terminal in Kerala, India. (Wikimedia Commons/Ranjithsiji)

JAKARYA - The Kerala State Authority in southern India closed several schools, offices and public transportation, authorities said on Wednesday, as they sought to control the rare spread of the Nipah virus, damaging the brain and deadly.

An adult and a child are still infected in hospital. Meanwhile, more than 130 people have been tested for the virus. The Nipah virus spreads through direct contact with the body fluids of an infected bat, pig or human, a state health official said.

"We focus on contact tracing of people who have been infected from an early age and isolating anyone who has symptoms", said Kerala State Health MinisterAN George, adding the strain of the virus was being investigated.

"People's movements have been restricted in several state areas, to address the medical crisis," he continued.

Previously, two people infected with the virus died on August 30 in the state's fourth virus outbreak since 2018, forcing authorities to announce isolation zones in at least seven villages in Kozhikode District.

Strict isolation rules are implemented, with medical staff quarantined after direct contact with the infected person.

The first victim was a land owner in Marutonkara Village in the district, a government official said.

The victim's daughter and sister-in-law, both infected, are in isolation. Meanwhile, family members and other neighbors are undergoing tests.

The second death came after contact at the hospital with the first victim, based on an initial doctor's investigation, but both had nothing to do with it, the official added, who did not wish to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Separately, three federal teams, including experts from the National Institute of Virology, are scheduled to arrive this Wednesday for further testing, the official said.

It is known that the Nipah Virus was first identified in 1999, when a disease outbreak broke out among pig breeders and other people who had close contact with these animals in Malaysia and Singapore.

In the first Nipah outbreak in Kerala, 21 of the 23 infected people died. Meanwhile, the outbreak in 2019 and 2021 claimed two more lives.

A Reuters investigation in May identified several areas of Kerala as one of the most globally at risk of an outbreak of the bat virus. Extensive deforestation and urbanization have brought humans and wildlife closer.