Kozhikode: A day after a 42-year-old woman from Valanchery tested positive for Nipah, health department ramped up contact tracing and identified 58 of her contacts. Meanwhile, six symptomatic contacts, who were hospitalized, tested negative on Friday.
Among them, the five who had mild symptoms were moved into an isolation ward at Manjeri Medical College, while a staff nurse from Ernakulam was also shifted there. With this, the total number of persons who tested negative for the virus has risen to 13.
On Friday, doctors administered monoclonal antibodies to the patient in the ICU, whose condition is serious. Of the 51 high-risk contacts under observation, 12 are her close relatives, three work at Valanchery family health centre, one at a local clinic, 25 at Perinthalmanna hospital and two at different laboratories.
Meanwhile, district authorities imposed restrictions and declared nine wards across four local bodies as containment zones. To control the spread, health department has made wearing masks in public mandatory.
As a preventive step, fever surveillance will start on Saturday, with health workers set to visit 4,749 houses in four days.
Animal husbandry department will send samples of a cat that died in the woman’s neighbourhood to a lab in Bhopal to check for Nipah antibodies. Health minister Veena George ordered a joint outbreak investigation involving multiple departments.
“Experts believe there’s a better chance of finding the source of infection in this case,” she said.
George said the govt’s ongoing ‘Ente Keralam’ programme will continue under strict restrictions since it has already started. However, district administration cancelled the cultural programmes planned as part of the event. Opposition leaders had earlier demanded that the event be called off.
George instructed the collector and the district medical officer to take action under the Disaster Management Act and Public Health Act against those who withhold information from health department.
She also said the doctor who examined the patient suspected the diagnosis after reviewing her MRI scan and ordered that her samples be sent for testing
