New Delhi: The Nipah Virus infection (NiV) claimed one more life in Kerala on Thursday, according to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). With this, the death toll has risen to 12.
“The total number of confirmed cases is 14 and the number of suspected cases is 20. Till today 12 persons (nine from Kozhikode and three from Malappuram) have died of NiV,” said Sunil Gupta, additional director, microbiology, NCDC. After reviewing the cases of all the patients who have lost their lives, the central high-level team of NCDC on Thursday in an official statement said that the Nipah virus disease is not a major outbreak and is only a local occurrence.
“The central team held meetings with the district collectors and the medical and paramedical staff of the hospitals today to review the condition of the admitted patients and to consider further course of action to be taken to prevent the disease from spreading,” said a statement issued by Union health ministry.
“The efforts taken so far for containment of the disease have been fruitful as the disease has not spread to new areas. The contact tracing strategy adopted has also been successful. It has been found that all the reported cases including the suspected cases had direct or indirect contact with the first casualty/his family prior to contacting the disease,” it said.
The health ministry has issued prevention guidelines advising people to avoid contact with infected bats and pigs, avoid consuming raw foods, eat only well-cooked food, maintaining personal hygiene and hand washing practice, wearing N95 mask and reporting to the doctor in case of any symptoms.