The first victim of the Nipah virus may have transmitted his infection to 17 dead people

A detailed study by the Kerala government in the recent outbreak of the Nipah virus suggested that 17 out of 19 infected persons may have contracted the Nipah virus from the first victim, Mohammed Sabith, 26 years.

Mohammed Sabith died on May 5 and was among the 17 others who lost their lives after contracting the virus. According to the records available, Mohammed Sabith contracted the Nipah virus from fruit-eating bats and 17 others – including three of his family, namely a father, a younger brother and a paternal aunt – were infected. According to him, government sources said.

Moreover, the virus from him is also suspected of having infected four other people at Peramabra Taluk Hospital, Kohzikode, where he was brought, sources in the surveillance department of Kerala Services said, adding that 10 others in the Kozhikode University Hospital, where he was taken for a CT scan in the radiology department, also took him the virus.

A patient was infected by another man at the Perambra hospital

It is suspected that Mohammed Sabith, an electrician, contracted the fruit bats virus, but the circumstances in which he was infected are not clear. He had returned from the Gulf eight months before his death.

Mohammed Sabith was first treated on an outpatient basis at Perambra Hospital for high fever and body pain on May 2nd.

On May 3, he was admitted to the hospital, it is suspected that four people on night duty, including his sister Lini Puthussery, who looked after him, took him the virus.

While his condition worsened on May 4, Mohammed Sabith was transferred to the hospital Ten people were infected at the medical college the day he was there, sources said.

Although Mohammed Sabith's blood samples were not tested for Nipah, according to the records, it was concluded that he had contracted the Nipah virus, sources said.

His younger brother was admitted to the hospital with similar symptoms and tests revealed that he was Nipah positive. He died soon after, followed by their 60-year-old father and a paternal aunt who came to help them.

It was suspected that the brothers had contracted the virus when they entered a well infested with bats. newly purchased property. However, bats in the well have been found to be insectivorous, according to sources.

As a precautionary measure, a contact list of nearly 3,000 people with whom the infected persons had been in contact was prepared. in quarantine. The Nipah report was also made on them, according to sources.

The comprehensive report on the Nipah epidemic was sent to the Central Monitoring Department, sources said.

asked permission to officially close the outbreak while the double incubation period of the virus is over.

Two of the infected patients made a miraculous recovery.

Fever, altered mental state, severe weakness, headache, respiratory distress cough, vomiting, muscle aches, seizures, diarrhea are symptoms of the virus, which also causes serious illness characterized by inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) or respiratory diseases.

The government declared the districts of Kozhikode and Malappuram Nipah on June 30 after no new cases reported since May 31.