Chennai: The Kerala government on Wednesday said the National Institute of Virology in Pune has confirmed that bats were the source of Nipah infection in a 12-year-old Kozhikode boy who died of the virus on September 5.
Following the boy’s death, Kerala health authorities had earlier this month collected bat samples from Kozhikode and sent it to the NIV. Health Minister Veena George on Wednesday confirmed that bats found around the Nipah victim’s house have antibodies to the virus, according to an NIV study.
George said the results of samples taken from bats from the area where the boy lived showed the presence of antibodies to the Nipah virus.
NIV Pune has informed us that the presence of antibodies to Nipah virus has been found in some samples collected from bats from a particular location. ICMR is studying further on this. We have no new case of Nipah virus in the state: Kerala Health Minister
— ANI (@ANI) September 29, 2021
“Antibodies have been found in two different varieties of bat, samples of which were collected from around the boy’s house. The samples were tested at the National Institute of Virology, Pune. ICMR is doing more studies on this and They will inform us,” PTI quoted the minister as saying.
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The NIV team had collected several samples from the area and more reports are expected in the coming days.
The 12-year-old died on September 5 after a few weeks of treatment at a hospital in Kozhikode, and it was only at a later stage that it was discovered that the boy was Nipah positive.
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