An outbreak of a deadly virus that attacks the brain has killed at least 10 people in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Nipah virus, or NiV, has infected 13 other people, two of whom were in critical condition in hospital on Wednesday. Dozens of others were under surveillance.
Almost 100 people have been quarantined inside their homes in the state, which is a popular tourist destination.
Nipah is a highly infectious virus carried by fruit bats that causes inflammation of the brain in humans. The symptoms include fever and headaches, followed by drowsiness and confusion, leading to possible coma and death within a week. There is no cure known yet, and patients are only given supportive care. The virus is spread by infected bats, pigs or humans.
Eight of the dead are from Kerala’s Kozhikode district, the hub of the outbreak, where multiple members of one family were the first to be infected. Two brothers from the family died on May 5 and their father is also infected and being treated in hospital. A female relative who was with them in hospital also died later.
While the cause of the outbreak is still being investigated, a team of health experts who visited the family’s house have linked it to dead bats found in the home’s water well. Authorities have sealed the well and sent the bat blood samples for medical tests. The report is expected on Friday.
With panic setting in, several families in Kozhikode district have evacuated their homes in the last four days, some Indian media reports said. Two people have died in the neighboring district of Mallapuram.
“There is no need to panic. All cases are linked to the one family in Kozhikode — those who came in contact with them,” Rajeev Sadanandan, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department in Kerala, told CBS News.