It has been studied that the new Nipah is a Bangladeshi variant with high mortality rate. It has an addtitional fatal symptom of respiratory problem other than the usual encephalitis. However, it is slow in transmission unlike covid. Fortunately, the zoonotic virus has an R-value of less than one.

Seven containment zones were declared in Kozhikode district on Wednesday where everything will be shut till further orders.

Mostly the source of transmission is the flying fox which has made the pitched roof spaces of the old, superior Portuguese style houses in Kerala as its second home.

KOZHIKODE (Kerala), Sept 13: Nipah virus infection has broken out in Kerala for a third time, claiming two lives and infecting three others. The two deaths were reported from a private hospital in Kozhikode district in the past few days.

The first death was of a 44-year-old reported on August 30. Nipah virus was first suspected when his son (9) and another relative (24) also sought treatment for symptoms similar to the viral infection. Antivirals and monoclonal antibodies are currently being used to treat the two patients and another infected medical worker.

The victim was a native of Maruthonkara village, where the first Nipah outbreak took place in 2018 also. Fruit bats from the area had tested positive then. Extensive deforestation has brought people and wildlife closer and hence the viral diseases are on the rise.

The second death of a 40-year-old man of the same district took place in the same hospital on Monday. He contracted it in the hospital from the person who died earlier but both have no connection.

All the cases had confusing symptoms of a viral infection starting with high fever.

"Nipah virus infection has been confirmed in Kozhikode district. Two people died due to the infection. Of the four people whose saliva was sent for testing (Pune Virology Lab), two were Nipah positive and two were Nipah negative," Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in a Facebook post on Wednesday. He appealed to the people to not panic but take precaution.

A list of contacts of those infected has been made. However, the Government is yet to make an announcement of Nipah viral epidemic in the State. The health department has started preventive steps.

Seven village panchayats - Atanchery, Maruthonkara, Tiruvallur, Kuttiyadi, Kayakkodi, Villyapalli and Kavilumpara - in Kozhikode district have been declared as containment zones.

Travel in and out is barred in the containment areas from Wednesday. Schools and offices were closed, transport services stopped and public gatherings barred.

The Government said on Wednesday that a team from the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune is rushing to Kerala to set up a mobile lab at the Kozhikode Medical College and also study the bat behaviour.

It has been stated that the new Nipah is a Bangladesh variant with high mortality rate but slow in transmission unlike covid.

The Central Government on Tuesday sent a team of health experts to Kerala.

There were two outbreaks in the State in the past and both were in the same Kozhikode district. The first was reported at Changaroth near Perambra in May 2018 which claimed 17 lives (of 18 infected). Second time a 12-year-old boy from Chathamangalam died in September 2021.

Meanwhile, neighbouring Tamil Nadu has announced that travellers coming from Kerala would be subjected to medical tests.The Government has alerted the hospitals in the State.

Mode of transmission, symptoms and patient management

Nipah viral infection is zoonotic and is spread mainly by fruit bats - through fruits bitten by infected bats. It is potentially fatal to animals as well as humans. Fruit bats transmit the virus to other animals like pigs, and also dogs, cats, goats, horses and sheep. They, especially pigs, also transmit the infection to human beings. Pigs can die en masse. Although, any animal or bird is a potential host and may spread the disease.

The infection takes place through bodily fluids like saliva or fomites or even by person to person or animal contact or through contaminated food. Transmission through drinking of raw date palm sap (local toddy), or fruits contaminated by bat urine or saliva (bite), has also been identified.

The symptoms start with fever, muscular pain, headache, fever, dizziness and nausea like in other viral infections and could easily go misdiagnosed. It almost looks similar to covid. Nipah leads to fatal encephalitis or what is called brain fever, progressing to coma and death. A new symptom that kills the patient is acute respiratory problem.

Since there is no cure or any vaccine, the focus has to be on prevention. The management of the infection includes supportive care with treatment of symptoms. However, antiviral Ribavirin has been found to an extent helpful in reducing mortality. The fatality rate of Nipah is globally estimated at 40% to 75%. Nipah has an R-value of less than one.

In order to help prevent infection, there are some basic and simple tips: Wash your hands frequently, especially before taking food; heat food before consumption; be wary of fomites; avoid fruits contaminated by bats; avoid physical contact with other people.

In India, apart from Kerala, there have been cases reported from Bengal where in 2001 and later over 50 people died.

Nipah virus was first identified in 1998-99 in an outbreak among pig farmers in Malaysia (of 265 infected, 105 died). Singapore also had an outbreak. In Bangladesh there have been several outbreaks.

Two days earlier, in a similar incident in the area, a domestic help was bitten by a pet dog in the lift when she was going for work.

Tailpiece: Sometimes appearing to outnumnber men and women on the streets, the stray dogs are turning more and more daring with sections of anti-social elements out there to feed and protect them in order to find a window for their unfulfilled love! There is an all-pervading feeling of lack of authority.

Ankit Tiwari had told the employee that “instructions had been received from the Prime Minister’s Office to conduct an enquiry” and reopen the “already disposed of” case and asked him to appear before the ED office at Madurai on October 30, DVAC said. The doctor was allegedly threatened with arrest and told to pay a bribe of Rs 3 cr to avoid the ED probe, which was later negotiated down to Rs 50 lakh.

Tailpiece: We are made to believe RBI, CBI, ED, Judiciary as sacrosanct and all others like railways, transport, revenue, education, PWD departments are composed of us the mortals, absolutely corrupt! As if in the sacrosanct places the angels descend from the heavens to work in the night and fly away before day-break! Let's be true to ourselves, we are all cut from the same cloth.

Apart from cash, Gill had also taken three planes as bribe and two of them were leased out to Redbird Aviation Academy. With the result, flying schools compromised on safety requirements and trainers met with accidents several times.

Five people were arrested from a banquet hall in Sector 51 Noida on Thursday where they were called to hold a rave party in a trap laid by the animal rights group, PFA. They named Yadav but he was not present.

Betting through Dubai-based Mahadev Book in India is conducted through a countrywide network. Probes reveal that the online gambling is worth several millions and top politicians, officials and celebs have been beneficiaries.

TAILPIECE: Polling dates for some States are round the corner. Top politicians have begun their acrimonious debate who looted more, even as Mahadev is washing their dirty laundry in the open ghat. Come what may, one needs to seize power to amass "thy wretched pelf!" One simple question is, why else one should spend lakhs or crores to get elected! A question every Indian should ask to oneself at least once a day!

His inaction amounts to defeating the rights of the people of the State to welfare measures sought to be implemented through the Bills, the Kerala Government's petition submitted, while the State of Tamil Nadu remarked that its "Governor is acting as a political rival."

Tailpiece: Coming up back to back, the petitions in their totality seem to question the provision of Raj Bhavan, and not motives of a Governor as a person.

Hundreds of cars piled up behind the wreckage of crashes occurring one after other in backing up - continuous crashes to the rhythm of metallic clanks and bangs back to back. According to reports, some ops required 'Jaws of Life' to pull apart the mangled cars to save lives inside.

The pilots struggled with Emerson to thwart a shut-off as he reached for the T-handles (see pix). Later he admitted to police he had taken psychedelic mushrooms and had a "nervous breakdown."

Doctors reasoned how the incidence of heart attacks is spiking over time and advise the simple way to play safely is to take a break and rehydrate yourself.

But how come ten people, including children, die of cardiac arrest at Garba in 24 hours, and that at different places of Gujarat? Garba had been going on for six days, and every year it is celebrated.

The killing of a teacher in France by an Islamic radical last Friday is linked to the Israel-Hamas war in West Asia, say authorities.

Shocking news from the UK: Leading grocers have started bribing policemen with free food and drinks to persuade them to take action against shoplifters.

Shoplifting has risen by about 27 per cent in 10 major cities across the UK this year. The cost of retail crime last year was $2.15 billion. Besides, “We are seeing organised gangs threatening staff with weapons and emptying stores," Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said. Data shows that the police failed to respond to 73 per cent of serious retail crimes that included assault and abuse of workers, apart from shoplifting.

Isar Mohammad allegedly picked up a banana offered to Ganesh idol on Chaturthi at a makeshift temple in Delhi and consumed it.

Harris said hip-hop is “the ultimate American art form” that “shapes every aspect of American popular culture.” “Hip-hop culture is American culture,” she said in a talk at her official residence at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.

The social media had mixed reaction. There was much appreciation that she dances better than any VP in American history. But some called her "moves" as “cringe” while others did not like her pink pants - "pink pants don’t look good.” In fact, her ensembles have always been incongruous.

"Let’s see how the (Governor's) Vice-Chancellors are given salary." Mamata's extreme statements will put the Marxist Government in Kerala, which is also facing similar issues, to shame. Has she begun the countdown for a war on the streets?

It's true Mamata has come to see a conspiracy to demolish the established systems across the country, but lacks the ability to foresee what exactly is being pushed.

Brandishing a sword, Mahant Paramhans told reporters on Tuesday he himself will behead MK Stalin's son for his remarks against Sanatan Dharma in case nobody came forward to accept his offer he made in his video. Udhayanidhi reacted to the saint's Monday video, "I will speak more. I am the grandson of the artist who put his head on the rail track for Tamil Nadu."

Somanath elaborated, "I am an explorer. I explore the Moon. I explore the inner space. So it's a part of the journey of my life to explore both science and spirituality. So I visit many temples and I read many scriptures. So try to find the meaning of our existence and our journey in this cosmos. So it's a part of the culture that we are all built to explore, find out the inner self as well as outer self. So for the outer, I do science, for the inner I come to temples." (See videos)

Rao the mathematical legend had fathered the path-breaking Rao-Blackwell theorem, one of the most important theorems in mathematical statistics, at the age of 25. That brought him global fame. He is also famous for his Cramér-Rao Bound inequality theorem relating to quality of estimators in statistics which has had a profound bearing on applications of modern economics and several other diverse fields. Simply put, with the pioneering statistician computation became a tool to analyse even socio-economic challenges of modern times.

The alleged incident has received such a flash publicity that a standardised city's hugely middle class population will have second thoughts about eating outside for some time. Now everything on the table looks suspicious!

“All subjects directly connected to the people should be shifted to the State List. Particularly the subject of education. Only if this is done can cruel exams like NEET be abolished,” Stalin said. Education was moved from the State List to the Concurrent List with the 42nd Constitution Amendment made by the Central Government in 1976.

Decentralisation has been at the core of Tamil politics since the times of CN Annadurai. Stalin indicated there will be political changes in the offing.

TAILPIECE: While the Centre and the States are at loggerheads, it takes a different cognitive acumen to know that entrance tests are not the way for students' admission to courses.