With public anxiety over Nipah escalating in the State, the samples of two persons, who developed fever and breathlessness and have a travel history to Kozhikode, are being sent to the Institute of Advanced Virology in the capital and the Alappuzha unit of the National Institute of Virology, to test for Nipah virus, as a matter of extreme caution.
Official sources confirmed that the samples of a 72-year old woman from Kattakada and a 22-year old female medical student, who is a native of Kozhikode, were being sent for Nipah testing. In the case of the former, the Nipah scare originated when the woman developed fever following the visit of some relatives who had travelled to Thiruvananthapuram via Kozhikode.
The medical student had developed a fever after she returned to the capital from Kozhikode.
Both patients are being kept under observation at separate medical facilities
Officials said that while there was no reason for undue anxiety, the samples were being sent for Nipah testing as a matter of protocol to rule out all possibilities.
