Kozhikode: Kerala’s lone Nipah patient continues to remain on ventilator support at the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital, while no new Nipah infections have been reported in the state, health authorities informed on Monday.
According to the officials, the patient was administered the second dose of monoclonal antibody therapy in accordance with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines. The second test result of a healthcare worker listed among the patient’s primary contacts also returned negative. Of the seven people who had been admitted to hospital for observation, two close relatives of the infected patient were discharged on Monday after their symptoms subsided. Both had earlier tested negative for the virus.
Meanwhile, another close relative of the patient, who had been under quarantine as part of the contact-tracing exercise, was admitted to Kozhikode Medical College Hospital for observation on Sunday. A total of six people are currently under observation in hospital. Authorities have also sent the sample of another healthcare worker on the contact list for testing.
Health officials said no fresh Nipah cases have been detected and no new individuals have been added to the contact list. The number of contacts under surveillance remains at 103, including four classified as very high-risk, 14 as high-risk and 85 as low-risk contacts. The contact list includes 45 healthcare workers.
As part of the ongoing response measures, the central team assisting Kerala’s Nipah containment efforts visited the private hospital in Feroke where the patient had initially sought treatment. Health workers also continued field surveillance activities in Ramanattukara Municipality, where the infection was reported.
On Monday, officials conducted visits to 46 additional households in Division 5 as part of the Nipah monitoring programme. The Nipah infection was confirmed in Kozhikode district on June 11. Since then, all individuals tested as part of contact tracing and surveillance have returned negative results, and no secondary infections have been reported so far.
