'Wrong Information', Says Coimbatore District Collector After He Was Misquoted On Nipah Virus Case

Coimbatore District Collector Dr GS Sameeran on Monday said he was misquoted about detection of a Nipah virus case in Tamil Nadu. The DC was quoted earlier by ANI as saying that a case of Nipah virus was identified in Coimbatore. But he later tweeted, saying that it’s a wrong information and that Coimbatore is taking all necessary precautions in the border.

ALSO READ | Nipah Virus in Kerala: 11 Contacts of Victim Symptomatic; Govt Zeroing in On ‘Source’

Nipah has sent authorities in Kerala into a tizzy as a 12-year-old has succumbed to the infection in the state last week. Kerala is on its toes to contain the spread of the virus, which is naturally transmitted from vertebrate animals to humans, while human-to-human transmission has also been documented. On Monday, samples of eight people with minor symptoms and Rambutan fruits were sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune for investigation.

The central team, which was sent to Kerala to support the state in public health measures, visited the house of the boy who died of the virus. The team also collected the samples of Rambutan fruits from the nearby vicinity, as the family had suspected that the boy was infected with the virus after consuming the fruit.

As many as 251 people, believed to be primary contacts of the boy were identified and were closely monitored. The Chathamangalam Panchayat and adjacent areas are completely cordoned off after the boy was found infected with Nipah virus. The three-km-radius from the boy’s house is now a containment zone.

Stressing that the Health department’s priority is to strengthen contact tracing and determine the source of infection, Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Monday said there are chances that the 12-year old boy who succumbed to Nipah may have come in contact with more number of people. George, who met the media here, said the samples of seven people among the 20 high-risk contacts of the child have been sent to the Pune NIV for testing.

First identified among pig farmers in Malaysia, the disease also surfaced in Siliguri, West Bengal, in 2001 and again in 2007. Historically, the virus had largely remained in a cluster, meaning it was mostly confined to an area, and affected those that came in close contact to the patients, the experts said.

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