Thiruvananthapuram: The Nipah scare in Kerala beat a retreat on Thursday as half a dozen people suspected of the virus were found to be safe, when their test results were received from the virology institute in Pune, Maharashtra.
“All six who are in isolation wards and were suspected to have been infected with the Nipah virus have been found to be safe. The test results of all of them are negative”, state Health Minister K.K. Shailaja said.
In addition, the condition of the lone Nipah-affected person in the state who is now undergoing treatment in Kochi, has shown improvement.
The minister, however, said that it was still too early to say the Nipah virus threat had passed.
Kerala had made elaborate preparations to deal with the Nipah virus attack after a student from a college in Thodupuzha was found to be affected by Nipah. Isolation wards were set up in different hospitals in the state, and the government ensured that there was enough stock of emergency medicines.
Last year, a Nipah outbreak in the northern districts of Malappuram and Kozhikode had claimed more than a dozen lives, including that of P.S. Lini, a nurse who risked her own life in attending to Nipah-affected patients.
It is suspected that the Nipah virus was spread through bats. The government is, however, yet to identify the precise source of the virus. There are also plans to spread awareness of the disease across school students in the state. Schools in Kerala opened on Thursday after a two-month summer break.
The news that the suspected Nipah patients have not been affected by the virus has gladdened the state’s tourism industry. In recent years, the tourism sector has been affected by last year’s Nipah attack and earlier by the state government’s decision to shut liquor bars in the state.
