Authorities in southern India’s Kerala state are taking preventive steps after the death of a 14-year-old boy from the Nipah virus and the identification of 60 persons in the high-risk category, the state’s health minister said on Sunday.
Parts of Kerala are among those most at risk globally for outbreaks of the virus, a Reuters investigation showed last year. Nipah, which comes from fruit bats and animals such as pigs, can cause a lethal, brain-swelling fever in humans.
Nipah is classified as a priority pathogen by the World Health Organization, opens new tab (WHO) because of its potential to trigger an epidemic. There is no vaccine to prevent infection and no treatment to cure it.
“The infected boy died on Sunday after a cardiac arrest,” Veena George, the state health minister told local TV reporters, speaking in the Malayalam language.
