Soldier From Kerala , Posted In Kolkata Dies Of Suspected Nipah Infection

As medical experts battle to contain the Nipah Virus outbreak in Kerala, there are fears of the deadly infection spreading to other parts of the country.

In the latest incident, a soldier posted at Fort William in Kolkata died on Monday of suspected Nipah virus.

PTI/ Representational Image

The soldier, Seenu Prasad, a native of Kerala and was on a month's leave.

Prasad had joined duty on May 13, but was admitted to hospital on May 20. He died on Sunday and was cremated the next day.

However, it was not yet confirmed that Prasad died of Nipah Virus infection and his samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.

“Till such time the report from the NIV in Pune is received it cannot be confirmed whether it was a case of Nipah virus or not,” an army spokesman said.

PTI/ Representational Image

The deadly Nipah virus first broke out in Kerala’s Kozhikode and Malappuram districts. So far, the virus has claimed 14 lives in the state.

There are also reports of three suspected case in Karnataka, though it is yet to confirmed as Nipah infection.

BCCL

Fruit bats were believed to be the main carriers of the virus, for which there is no medicine or vaccine yet.

However, experts have ruled out the possibility of bats spreading the virus in Kerala.

Meanwhile, the NIV in Pune have confirmed that the Bangladesh strain of Nipah virus (NiV) is responsible for the outbreak in Kerala. They reached the conclusion after decoding the full genome of the virus drawn from the throat swab sample of an infected patient.

The Nipah virus has two strains — Malaysia (NiVM) and Bangladesh (NiVB). Both the strains have high fatality rates, between 60% and 85%, the scientists said.