Nipah virus has resurfaced in Kerala after a 43-year-old man from Viruk in Kozhikode district tested positive for the infection, Kerala Health Minister K Muraleedharan said on Thursday. This is the first case of infection caused by a zoonotic virus in the state this year.
State health officials raised an alert after a preliminary PCR test conducted at the Government Kozhikode Medical College Hospital (MCH) late on Wednesday indicated the presence of the virus. The patient’s fluid samples, which were sent for testing at the National Institute of Virology in Pune, also tested positive for the virus on Thursday.
“The man is currently undergoing ventilator support at the Kozhikode Government Maternal and Child Health Hospital. All possible treatments are being provided,” Muralidharan told reporters after a review meeting with senior health officials in Thiruvananthapuram.
The minister stressed that the man, a small businessman residing within the Ramanatukara municipal limits, had been in contact with a large number of people in the days when he suffered from symptoms of fever and encephalitis. He visited at least two private hospitals where he underwent MRI and ECHO scans.
“The health department has prepared a contact list of 72 people so far. Of them, 58 are health workers and 14 are family members. There are two people who have been assessed as being at the highest risk of infection. Additionally, 13 are high-risk contacts and the rest have been assessed as low-risk. The high-risk contacts have been asked to enter quarantine immediately,” Muralidharan said. No one is currently showing any symptoms.”
Rapid response teams in the municipal wards where the patient resides held a meeting on Thursday to assess the stock of personal protective equipment, gloves and masks. Essential medicines were also stored to supply those in quarantine.
With frequent outbreaks in previous years, the Ministry of Health has put in place a set of protocols to address the Nipah virus. At the grassroots level, health officials will be deployed to trace the source of infection and confirm whether the first positive case is indeed the index case. Officials said fever surveys will be conducted in residential areas near the homes of infected people.
Nipah is a zoonotic virus that is transmitted from animals to humans and the natural vector of the virus is the fruit bat (or flying fox). Infected fruit bats can spread the disease to humans and other animals, according to the US-based Center for Disease Control. Symptoms include fever, headache, cough, sore throat, vomiting, and confusion. Deaths may occur in 40-75% of cases, and the virus has a high mortality rate.
The Health Minister said the 43-year-old patient recently rented a toilet and cleaned it himself. He added: “There are indications that the hideout contained bat droppings and secretions through which the virus was known to spread in the past.”
Since 2018, when the virus first emerged in the state, Kerala has reported 32 cases, including Thursday’s, and 23 deaths. 2018 saw the highest number of cases and deaths – 19 and 17 respectively. There were 1 case and 0 deaths in 2019, 1 case and 1 death in 2021, 6 cases and 2 deaths in 2023, 2 cases and 2 deaths in 2024, and 2 cases and 1 death in 2025.
