In response to the Nipah death in Kerala, a six-member expert team of ICMR has arrived in Kozhikode to support the State in public health measures. The Union Health Ministry has decided to deploy a multi-member joint outbreak response team to assist the state health department with case investigation, identification of epidemiological linkages, and providing technical assistance. 

ICMR has also sent a mobile BSL-3 laboratory to Kozhikode to test additional samples from those who were in contact with the deceased boy. Kerala Health Minister Veena George confirmed that the seven samples taken from people on the contact list have tested negative. Currently, 330 people are on the contact list, including 68 health workers and 101 of them are in the high-risk category. 

The funeral of the 14-year-old boy who succumbed to the virus was held yesterday following the Nipah protocol. As part of the preventive measures, the state health department started a door-to-door survey in the containment zone to identify people with fever symptoms. Nipah, a bat-borne zoonotic virus with a very high mortality rate was first reported in Kerala in 2018. Since then, Nipah cases have been confirmed four times in the state.