The 14-year-old boy, who was infected with the Nipah virus, died on Sunday morning at Kozhikode Medical College.
The State Health Minister Veena George said the boy hailing from Malappuram was on ventilator support at the Medical College, and he suffered a massive cardiac arrest. The doctors tried their level best to save him, the Minister told reporters.
The Minister said that four people listed in the high-risk category are undergoing treatment at the Manjeri Hospital. Of these, one person is admitted to the ICU.
The child initially went for treatment at a private hospital on July 12 and was shifted to another private hospital in Perinthalmanna after doctors suspected Nipah infection. Later, he was taken to Kozhikode Medical College following the confirmation of the Nipah virus from the National Institute of Virology in Pune.
This was the 5th outbreak of the Nipah virus in Kerala, and the death toll has risen to 21 since the outbreak of the virus in 2018 in Kozhikode.
The government has announced strict preventive measures. At present, 246 people are on the contact list, with 63 classified as high-risk. Samples from four have been sent for testing. Priority will be given to taking samples from all persons in the high-risk category, the Minister said.
Rajeev Jayadevan, Chairman, Research Cell, IMA-Kerala said that from the initial patient, the virus could spread to close contacts and caregivers through respiratory secretions or other body fluids. As it carries a high mortality, careful efforts are made to track the contacts to minimise any further spread.
The R-0 of this virus is only 0.4, which means that if 10 people have Nipah, it will only spread to four people, and those four will spread to two persons, and then the outbreak dies down, he said.
Unlike Covid, which has an R-0 of 2-3, Jayadevan said Nipah does not spread to large numbers of people. Therefore, people living far away who are not on the contact list of the initial patient need not be alarmed. The public is advised not to eat bat-eaten fruit found on the ground, and also to avoid walking barefoot on properties with fruit trees where bats visit frequently. There is no harm in eating fruits available in shops, as long as they are washed and free from bite marks, Jayadevan said.