All four persons including a 9-year-old boy, who were under treatment for Nipah fever at different hospitals in Kerala’s Kozhikode, have recovered. They will soon be discharged from the hospital and shifted to home quarantine. Of the four, two were contacts of Muhammed Ali from Maruthonkara who died on August 30, and the other two were contacts of Harris from Ayacherry, who died on September 11, due to the Nipah virus.
As informed by the Aster MIMS Hospital Kozhikode, the nine-year-old son of Muhammed Ali, and his brother-in-law who is 25 years old, have fully recovered from Nipah and will be shifted to home quarantine. Almost all the samples sent for testing turned negative recently, giving relief to the health department.
Aster MIMS also added in a press release that this is the first time a patient under ventilator support has recovered from Nipah. The nine-year-old and his uncle were admitted on September 9, and the child was on a ventilator for four days. Even though the patients have recovered fully, they have been asked to be quarantined at home for another two weeks.
Doctors said that the death toll was high in the 2018 Nipah outbreak as the disease was identified late. This time, it was more contained because of quicker diagnosis.
The cause of death of 44-year-old Muhammed Ali was initially attributed to liver cirrhosis, but when his relatives approached MIMS Hospital with symptoms, doctors checked the background and identified that it could be Nipah. Later, Muhammed Ali’s samples turned positive for the virus, and it was considered the index case for the outbreak.
Harris, who died on September 11, had spent an hour with Muhammed Ali at a private hospital. So he may have contracted the virus from there, according to health officials.