The Nipah virus present in the bodies of infected persons in the 2023 episode in Kozhikode district has not undergone genetic mutations, compared with the samples tested in earlier outbreaks, Health Minister Veena George has said.
She told mediapersons here on Tuesday evening that the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology, Pune, had conducted a genomic sequencing of the virus present in the infected patients and fruit-eating bats from the affected areas in the 2018, 2019, and 2021 outbreaks. They were found to be similar.
“The results of the genomic sequencing of the human virus [present in infected persons this time] were made available today. They are almost similar to the previous ones,” Ms. George said. More studies would be held.
Thirty-six body fluid samples of bats collected from one affected area had tested negative for the virus. More such samples would be collected from other places.
No fresh cases
The Minister said no fresh case of the infection had been reported for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday.
The body fluid samples of 49 more suspected patients had turned negative. The medical isolation period of 281 people on the high-risk contact list of the first patient was over.
All those on the contact list of infected persons should undergo a mandatory medical isolation for 21 days. Eleven people were in medical isolation at the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, now.
Of the four infected persons, the condition of three was clinically stable. There was progress in the status of a nine-year-old child too. Fever survey had been completed in 52,667 houses. The Central team had reported that there was nothing unusual in the deaths of wild boars in the affected areas, Ms. George added.
