According to The Peninsula Qatar, The Ministry of Public Health has advised citizens and residents to avoid unnecessary travel to Kerala, India, for the time being, in the wake of Nipah virus outbreak in the Malabar region. There is a temporary ban on the import of fresh, frozen and frozen fruits and vegetables from Kerala, too, until the epidemic situation stabilizes.

A rough translation of the ministry statement reads:

The Ministry of Public Health has taken a number of precautionary measures in cooperation with other competent authorities in the country in the light of the outbreak of Nipah virus in the districts of Kozhikode and Malappuram of Kerala state in southern India.
The Ministry calls upon citizens and residents to avoid unnecessary travel temporarily to Kerala, during this period, except for extreme cases until the outbreak is contained in India. Those returned from the area in the last six weeks need to check with the nearest health center or hospital in the event of symptoms of fever.
The Joint Commission for the Control of Human Food has also adopted a temporary ban on the import of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables from Kerala, until the epidemic situation stabilizes. The decision comes as a precautionary measure after following up situation in India and on the recommendations of international organisations.
The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines emphasise the necessity of washing and peeling fruit before consumption.
The Ministry of Public Health also disseminated the standard definition of suspected cases, the mechanism of dealing with them, and the infection control guidelines to liaison officers in all hospitals and health centers to ensure the rapid reporting of any suspected cases.
A team on Communicable diseases in the Ministry of Public Health receives any communications or queries related to the disease round the clock on hotline numbers 66740948 and 66740951

World Health Organization states Nipah virus (NiV) infection is a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans. The natural host of the virus are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae Family, Pteropus genus.

NiV was first identified during an outbreak of disease that took place in Kampung Sungai Nipah, Malaysia in 1998. On this occasion, pigs were the intermediate hosts. However, in subsequent NiV outbreaks, there were no intermediate hosts. In Bangladesh in 2004, humans became infected with NiV as a result of consuming date palm sap that had been contaminated by infected fruit bats. Human-to-human transmission has also been documented, including in a hospital setting in India.

NiV infection in humans has a range of clinical presentations, from asymptomatic infection to acute respiratory syndrome and fatal encephalitis. NiV is also capable of causing disease in pigs and other domestic animals. There is no vaccine for either humans or animals. The primary treatment for human cases is intensive supportive care.

Cover image credited to The Peninsula Qatar - Medical personnel wearing protective suits check patients at the Medical College hospital in Kozhikode on May 21, 2018. (AFP)

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Leena Chung

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