Nipah scare: NIV, Pune team collects samples from bats in Kerala

KOCHI: A team from National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, collected samples from 23 bats found on the premises of the house at Thodupuzha, where the Nipah-infected 23 – year old student stayed, on Sunday. Theteam aims to find the source of the infection.
Forest department officials helped the team collect samples from bats.
Meanwhile, the condition of the student improved.Of the three samples of the patient sent to NIV, two tested negative and one positive.
Also, one more person with fever was admitted at Ernakulam Medical College. With this, the total number of people under observation at the medical college touched eight. Seven of them have tested negative for Nipah. Also, blood sample from a patient, who is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in the district, has been collected for tests.
None of the 327 people, who came in contact with the Nipah-infected student, have shown any symptoms of the disease.
Meanwhile, four teams of doctors from the disease control room inspected 73 private hospitals as part of preventive measures.
They looked into the details of death of 1,798 people registered with local bodies in Ernakulam in the past month. No one had any symptoms of Nipah, it was found.
So far, a total of 567 calls were received at the control room set up to clear doubts of public about Nipah virus. On Sunday, 10 calls were received .
Meanwhile, labour officials on Sunday inspected five labour camps at Maradu, Kundannur and Aluva.
Besides, a total of 7,916 health officials, Kudumbashree and Asha workers were given training in Ernakulam as part of Nipah preventive measuers.