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.

Delhi has recorded the hottest night (35+ deg C), unheard of since the beginning of time! For 30 consecutive days the maximum temp is above 40 deg C and in the nights too the mercury stayed high as there is hardly any earth around to absorb and dissipate the day's heat. Add on to the nightmare the acute water shortage in the national Capital due to the power-hungry, low-grade politicians squabbling for one-upmanship. More than 200 people died in Delhi-NCR in the past two days. Most of them are poor people, labourers, the homeless, beggars.

An anatomy of NEET 2024: From the start till finish NEET will stay put as a conundrum jinxed as it is. What if it was thought angels would come down from the heaven to conduct the entrance exam if done at the Centre and if in the States, they would be conducted by the corrupt mortals. So NEET was born... It's 'guaranteed' that no party will ever be able to do what is required to be done in the country. Because of their genetics. Frauds will only multiply. Is there anything worse? Yes. Shoot the messenger!

A video shows the terrifying scene of the chopper swirling and dropping nose down mid-air around the helipad. In fact, the rear rotor had gone for a toss and the pilot was performing autorotation for a crash-landing. He pulled it off! Congrats!

True or false, Savitri claimed her husband had told her to throw Vinod into the canal as all that he does is eat. "How much torture can my son endure?" She picked him up when he was asleep.

Marking a decisive stage in the ongoing tussle between Governors and the Governments in some States, the Governor of Bengal has thrown down the gauntlet to the State police, asking the Raj Bhavan staff to refuse any enquiry from the cops in the sexual harassment case filed by a woman employee against him.

COMMENT: In many a case complaints can be frivolous, made under certain circumstances. So it is more in the interest of the accused that there is an investigation to clear his name. Denial may only mean acceptance of the guilt. Besides, quoting Constitutional immunity in sexual harassment cases is nothing short of a vulgarity of the feudal landlord. Nobody is above the law.

While the universal apprentice scheme will enable the educated youth to stand up (literally) in a country where the people are trampled by wretched politicians, and look about for avenues to earn a living confidently, the provision of student credit cards of up to Rs 10 lakh will ensure each and every student of this country receives equal opportunities to fulfil their aspirations of higher education irrespective of their financial conditions. It will be a game changer. These are on the lines of what US Vice-President Kamala Harris visualised to be happening to the Third World when she hailed Ajay Banga as a transformative World Bank President.

Peter Higgs is the father of the mysterious Higgs boson, otherwise called 'God Particle', which gives mass to all elementary particles, and created our universe. His contribution helped other scientists understand how the Big Bang created something out of nothing 13.8 billion years ago. The equations of particle physicists which did not have a leg to stand on till then, the 'God Particle' came as a Godsend. The theories so far to describe the universe did not hold water.

It was only by 2012, after 50 years of the boson discovery, that scientists at CERN could make the big announcement that they had finally found a Higgs boson using the Large Hadron Collider.

Higgs instantly broke into tears, tears of profound satisfaction, in the lecture hall where the announcement was made.

LEGAL REMEDIES: Last year, on the directive of the Supreme Court, the Governor granted assent to one Bill, and referred seven Bills to the President. The petition against the President also challenges the Governor's action of referring the Bills to her.

The unprecedented step by the State may also establish that it always upholds the Constitution and the rule of law in order to pre-empt any eventuality of getting dismissed on flimsy grounds invoking provisions of the Constitution later on; and, also provide a thrust to an emerging platform of regional forces pitted against the ongoing centralisation of every subject and activity in the country under one umbrella where the States will ultimately 'wither' away (for some time).

OPINION: Made to happen as it does just weeks ahead of the general elections, the arrest may signal, if not the cause of, far-reaching consequences in the course of Indian politics. The Opposition charges that the ruling party at the Centre has unleashed the police to catch a leader every other day for corruption allegedly indulged in in the present or the remote past in order to incapacitate any concerted opposition to the ruling dispensation.

The “My way or the highway" man, Trump has predicted 'apocalypse' for Americans if he is not elected the President in the upcoming election. He sounds “extremism, affection for violence." As always, he is also seeing what others don't, and repetitively using words like "(2020) election was stolen"! And that's a symptom! Delivering a no-holds-barred speech at a rally in Ohio, he also predicted the US won't see another election if he did not win the November battle against the incumbent President. With his savage push against the God-fearing Catholic, and the heap of criminal cases pending in the courts, the unpredictable Trump's nomination exposes a season of drought of leadership of calibre in the United States.

The much-touted 'one-nation, one-election' argument was purportedly to prevent wasteful expenditure of the people's money, manpower and deceleration of development, but the committee report when implemented will end up paving the way for holding more elections than currently being held. Because of the logistics and democratic limitations involved, the committee was not expected by commonsense to be out of a loose end either! Those who are alive at that time, and further for ten more years thereafter, can count the rounds and compare with the present numbers. Therefore, either the agenda is different or the 8-volume presentation is faulty/made-up!!!

The manager has defended himself saying that dry ice got mixed with mouth freshener by the negligence of the staff...After taking the mouth freshener the customers felt a burning sensation and started vomiting blood. Five of them were hospitalised. Two are in critical condition.

Harmful effects of dry ice: Ingested, dry ice can burn your mouth, esophagus and stomach as it sublimates on contact with the moisture of the organs and turns into CO2, apart from other damaging physical and chemical changes it induces. The pressure building up in the stomach due to sublimation can also rupture the stomach muscles. It turns lethal. In normal direct handling it leads to frostbite due to the cold temperature.

One of them is seen in CCTV being shot at close range. The motive is suspected to be personal enmity.

TAILPIECE: Almost every other day we hear of shootings in one place or other in the country. India will very soon replace the US as the world's No 1 in the incidence of mass shooting. It will eclipse terrorism as a source of concern. Who can help? At least, has it occurred to anyone's mind?

'This Moment' of Shakti fusion won the Best Global Music Album at the Grammys. Zakir Hussain has won two other awards too. In a great victory for Indians, five of them have won the Grammys this time. In other sections, Taylor Swift got her fourth Album of the Year award and Miley Cyrus got an award for the first time.

The Government scheme provides ₹ 51,000 per wedding of which ₹ 35,000 goes to the girl, ₹ 10,000 for wedding materials and ₹ 6,000 towards expenses for the ceremony.

“Two activists from the environmental movement ‘Riposte Alimentaire’ sprayed pumpkin soup on the armoured glass protecting the Mona Lisa, this Sunday, January 28, 2024, around 10 am (4aET),” a statement from the museum said.

It is not understood how undesirable elements are allowed to get so close to her and play havoc with the artwork. Several times over this has happened in the past, deranged minds masquerading as tourists and cultists venting their frustration.

A Spicejet passenger had a harrowing experience inside a tiny claustrophobic lavatory aboard a Mumbai-Bengaluru flight when he found to his bewilderment that the door was not opening.

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.