The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Shri J P Nadda today reviewed the ground situation with the Health Minister of Kerala and took stock of the public health measures in the affected areas. On directions of the Union Health Minister, a multi-disciplinary Central Team led by Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) including experts from NCDC, AIIMS, Safdarjung hospital, EMR division, NIV Pune was immediately deployed in Kozikode, Kerala and are constantly monitoring the situation of the Nipah Virus Disease and supporting the State Health Authorities in managing the outbreak.

After reviewing the situation, the Central Team suggested triage of Nipah cases and establishment of dedicated isolation facilities in district and strict infection control practices. Majority of the cases were found to be having contact with cases of Nipah virus disease. The Central teams recommended enlisting and daily follow up of all contacts.

Nipah virus disease has affected two districts of Kerala viz. Kozhikode and Malappuram and Government of India has issued the following guidelines.

• Brief on Nipah Virus disease
• Advisory for General Public
• Advisory  for Health Care Personnel
• Guidelines for sample collection for Nipah Virus
• Hospital infection control guidelines
• Laboratory Biosafety guidelines

In addition, to above specific case definition, contact tracing and treatment and clinical management protocol has been provided to State authorities.

National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is monitoring the situation in various States trough (Integrated Disease Control Surveillance Programme (IDSP) network. Advisories have been sent to all the states, video conferencing have been conducted with States for training and clarifying their doubts. Further samples were sent from various States viz. Goa, Telangana, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and all samples were negative. Details of cases and deaths, as on date there are 19 reported cases (18 lab confirmed). Out of 19 reported cases 17 died, from the two affected districts in Kerala State.