Kerala Doctor Behind Identification Of Nipah Outbreak Had Also Detected It In 2018
Parts of Kerala's northern district of Kozhikode are in a near-lockdown to prevent the spread of the Nipah virus outbreak, which has so far claimed two lives and infected five people, including a health worker.
According to the Kerala Health Department, there are over 950 people, including relatives, friends, and health workers, on the contact list of the patients, of which 213 are in the high-risk category. A total of 287 health workers are also on the contact list.
Four people in high-risk categories are in a private hospital, and 17 are under surveillance at the Kozhikode Medical College.
How Nipah outbreak was identified? ?
While contact tracing and monitoring continue, the outbreak could have been much worse if not for an alert doctor.
Dr AS Anoop Kumar, the Director of Critical Care Medicine at Aster MIMS Hospital in Kozhikode, suspected something was amiss when four patients - two siblings aged 9 and 4, their 22-year-old uncle, and their 9-month-old cousin were admitted to the hospital with symptoms like fever and breathing difficulties.
All the clinical tests, including those for influenza, COVID-19, and others, turned out to be negative.
Dr Kumar then learned that the father of the two minor boys had died on August 30 in another private hospital in the city in what was initially described as a case of multiple organ failure.
He also had symptoms like slurring of speech and diplopia -- this rang alarm bells, and Dr. Kumar knew immediately that he was not dealing with a case of pneumonia.
This led him to send the samples to be tested for Nipah, a rare zoonotic virus that is spread from animals such as infected pigs or bats to humans.
And the samples tested positive for the deadly infection.?
Same doctor detected Nipah in 2018
Dr. Kumar took the unusual step of getting the samples tested for Nipah because of his past experience.
In 2018, when the Nipah virus was first reported in Kerala, Dr. Kumar, then Chief of Critical Care Medicine at Baby Memorial Hospital in Kozhikode, identified the viral infection.
On May 17, 2018, a 28-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with symptoms like fever and vomiting. Even as the doctors struggled to identify the cause, the infection spread to his nervous system. After discussing with several experts, the patient's sample was sent for testing at the Manipal Centre of Virology Research, where it was identified as a Nipah virus infection.
It was too late by then, and the patient died on the same day the doctors got the result.
But the?diagnosis helped the doctors to identify more patients, and the Health Department was quick to move to contain the spread that would have otherwise spread rapidly, undetected.
What is Nipah virus?
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Nipah Virus is caused by fruit bats and is potentially fatal to humans as well as animals. Along with respiratory illness, it is also known to cause fever, muscular pain, headache, fever, dizziness, and nausea.
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