The Kerala administration declared in the state assembly on Wednesday that the brain-damaging Nipah virus, which has killed two of the four persons affected, was a strain of the Bangladesh version that passes from person to person. According to Kerala Health Minister Veena George, the variation has a high fatality rate but is less contagious.
George verified that the virus was responsible for the recent “unnatural deaths” in the state’s Kozhikode region. According to Reuters, one of those infected with the virus died this month, while the other died on August 30.
This is Kerala’s fourth Nipah outbreak since 2018. When Kerala first reported the Nipah outbreak in 2018, 21 of the 23 affected people died. Nipah claimed two more lives in 2019 and 2021.
There are no medicines or vaccinations available to combat the virus. The virus is transmitted to humans through direct contact with infected bats, pigs, or other people’s bodily fluids. It was discovered following an outbreak of disease affecting pig farmers and others in close contact with pigs in 1999.