A 14-YEAR-OLD boy has died from a brain-swelling bat virus that has previously been dubbed the 'next pandemic threat'. Sixty more people in Kerela, India, are now being classed as "high risk" after potentially coming into contact with the Nipah virus . The boy went into cardiac arrest after contracting the bug which can cause a lethal, brain-swelling fever.
Nipah is a zoonotic virus transmitted from animals like fruit bats and pigs to humans. Listed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a “priority pathogen” with pandemic potential, it can rapidly attack the respiratory and central nervous systems. In a statement on Saturday, Kerala health minister Veena George said the government has issued orders to identify and isolate affected people.
Dr Anoop Kumar, director of critical care medicine at Aster MIMS Hospital in Calicut, said one positive case of Nipah had been diagnosed in a schoolboy and people who had been in contact with him were being watched. "There is a minimum chance of an outbreak of Nipah virus at this stage," he said, adding that the situation would be monitored for the next seven to 10 days. There are 214 people on the contact list of the boy, the statement said.
Among them, 60 are in the high-risk category - which means they are more at risk of getting seriously ill if they contract the bug, compared to most. Most read in Health Family members of the affected patient were kept at a local hospital for observation and others who might be at risk were aske.