Nipah virus mystery deepens

Ministry says bats cannot be ruled out as the primary source of outbreak

The Union Health Ministry yesterday said that bats cannot be ruled out as the primary source of Nipah outbreak, nearly two weeks after a central medical team told it that samples collected from bats in two Kerala districts, where 17 people have died of Nipah infection, tested negative.

The need for new tests to determine the source of Nipah outbreak deepens the mystery behind the spread of the virus.

On May 26, the medical team in its report to the ministry said samples collected from insectivorous bats in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts tested negative.

But Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey said yesterday new samples of 55 fruit bats were collected two days ago and sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.

Results awaited

The test results of the fresh samples are awaited.

R.R. Gangakhedkar, head of Division of Epidemiology Communicable Diseases, Indian Council for Medical Research, said the previous samples were from insectivorous bats, which are not known to be Nipah carriers, and not from fruit bats.

Gangakhedkar said an NIV team has collected samples of 55 fruit bats two days ago.

The Nipah virus stays for a short duration in the body of fruit bats as their system is quite capable of fighting it. So even if a bat has been infected by virus earlier, their samples may test negative later. “Thus, there is need for a larger sample for testing,” he explained.

Choubey urged people not to panic as the infection has been contained.

Seventeen people — 14 in Kozhikode and 3 in Malappuram — have died due to Nipah virus so far.