Nipah virus kills 1 in southern India

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) - A 14-year-old boy from the southern Indian state of Kerala died of Nipah infection, officials said on Sunday.

State’s Health Minister Veena George said the boy was under treatment and died on Sunday in the city of Kozhikode.

She said the patient suffered a cardiac arrest and “the revival efforts failed.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Nipah virus infection causes disease in both animals and humans.

There is no vaccine for the disease the “natural host of the virus are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae Family, Pteropus genus,” the WHO said.

This is not the first time Kerala has seen cases of Nipah.

In 2023, Indian authorities reported six laboratory-confirmed Nipah virus cases, including two deaths, in Kozhikode district, Kerala, according to the world health body.