Kerala CM says Nipah effectively contained, govt to continue vigil

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The dreaded Nipah virus that claimed 17 lives in north Kerala has been contained effectively, said chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday, adding that the state government will continue its vigil in affected areas till the end of June.

Addressing an all-party meet in the state capital, he said no new cases were reported and secondary infection was contained effectively. He said the government will continue free ration to 2,500 people in two districts (Kozhikkode and Malappuram) who are under observation.

Vijayan said the monitoring of Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Epidemiology will continue in affected districts. “We will not lower the vigil. But at the same time, people should not go by fake campaigns carried out by a section of social media,” he said, adding that the government will bear the medical expenses of those undergoing treatment.

Opposition parties pledged their support to the government initiative. The meet also lauded the role of medical staff, health officials, and district administration who toiled for days to control the outbreak.

Health minister KK Shailaja said that only two affected persons are in hospital now and they are responding well to treatment. She said the antibody brought from Australia will be given to the affected under the observation of the ICMR team.

Meanwhile, the state assembly witnessed heated exchanges between treasury and opposition benches after an MLA, Kuttiyadi Parakkal Abdullah, from the most-affected area came to the House wearing mask and gloves.

The health ministers criticised his move, saying that Abdullah was trivialising the issue for publicity. However, the legislator said that his act was only to bring the attention of the government towards the “grave situation” prevailing in his constituency.

The state animal husbandry department has decided to defer its search to identify the primary source of infection. An official said since the main concern was controlling the spread of virus, the ongoing search will detract from it. He said finding the viruscarrier from lakhs of fruit bats will be a tedious process and it will done scientifically after the dust settles. Two rounds of tests on bats, both insectivorous and fruit, failed to detect the virus.