Nipah virus death puts health officials on alert in southern India

A patient is moved to an ICU of a Nipah isolation ward in Kozhikode Medical College, Kozhikode district in Kerala state, India, July 20, 2024.

Kochi, India — Authorities in southernKerala state are taking preventive steps after the death of a 14-year-old boy from theand the identification of 60 people in the high-risk category, the state’s health minister said on Sunday.

Parts of Kerala are among those most at risk globally for outbreaks of the virus, ashowed last year. , which comes from fruit bats and animals such as pigs, can cause a lethal, brain-swelling fever in humans.

Nipah is classified as

...working to trace any affected people to contain the spread of the virus. Nipah has been linked to the deaths of dozens of people insince its first appearance in the state in 2018.was first identified 25 years ago in Malaysia and has led to outbreaks in Bangladesh, India and Singapore.