As Kerala battling with a daily increase of over 25,000 cases of Covid-19, the deadly Nipah virus has come as another thorn in its side, prompting the southern state to further heighten the alertness of its health machinery to prevent an outbreak of a different infection. After a 12-year-old boy died due to Nipah and two others displayed symptoms of the infection, the locals are now concerned about the spread of both deadly infections in the state and have asked can a person get infected with both Nipah and Covid?
Kerala Health Minister Veena George said on Sunday that the state need not be concerned about the spread of Nipah infection as preventive measures like use of masks and PPE kits — are already in place due to Covid-19 and intensive contact tracing was going on.
NIPAH VIRUS
The first Nipah virus disease outbreak in South India was reported from Kozhikode district in Kerala on May 19, 2018. There have been 17 deaths and 18 confirmed cases as of June 1, 2018.
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The outbreak was contained and declared over by June 10, 2018. Thereafter, in June 2019, a new case of Nipah was reported from Kochi and the sole patient was a 23-year-old student, who later recovered.
With this year’s reporting of a case, it is the fifth time the virus has been detected in India and the third in Kerala.
Covid-19 Cases in Kerala
Kerala on Sunday reported 26,701 fresh Covid-19 cases and 74 deaths pushing the total infection count to 42,07838 and the fatalities till date to 21,496, the state government said. The test positivity rate (TPR) was found to be 17.17 per cent after testing 1,55,543 samples in the last 24 hours, according to a state government release. With this, 3,23,90,313 samples have been tested till now, it said.
The bulletin also said that since Saturday, 28,900 people have recovered from the infection taking the total recoveries to 39,37,996 and the number of active cases to 2,47,791. Among the 14 districts of the state, Kozhikode recorded the highest number of cases with 3,366 followed by Thrissur (3,214), Ernakulam (2,915), Malappuram (2,568), Palakkad (2,373), Kollam (2,368), Thiruvananthapuram (2,103), Kottayam (1,662), Alappuzha (1,655), Kannur (1,356), Idukki (1,001) and Pathanamthitta (947), the release said.
WHAT EXPERTS SAY
Speaking to PTI, experts like Dr Amar Fettle, Dr T S Anish and Dr T N Suresh have said that there was less cause for concern at present as the state has already dealt with the Nipah virus twice in the past — when it reared its head in 2018 and 2019 — and the risk of transmission would be less this time round as protective measures, like wearing of masks and PPE kits, are already in place.
They also said that Nipah infections are usually confined to small clusters or areas.
The experts said that “intensive contact tracing” and quarantine of all primary contacts were the two main steps to be taken to ensure effective control over spread of the infection.
Dr Fettle, the nodal officer for H1N1, said that the Nipah infection is very pathogenic, but it is more likely to spread once the patient’s condition becomes severe — when he/she is hospitalised.
He said that risk of the infection spreading would, therefore, be higher in the hospital than at community level.
Hence, while doing contact tracing, people who may have come into contact with the patient at the hospitals should be “meticulously traced”, he said.
He further said that steps taken by the state to tackle Covid-19, like preparing a time stamped route map of patients, would come in handy here also as it would help public health authorities inform people about the places visited by the infected person and at what times.
This will let people know as to who all need to quarantine themselves or come forward for testing if they exhibit symptoms and would avoid widespread panic in the district or state, he said.
All of the experts said that supportive care was the only mode of treatment as there is no cure or vaccine for Nipah.
They also said that the likelihood of both Nipah and Covid-19 infecting patients was less.
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