Travel forbidden to four districts of Kerala | Fusion - WeRIndia

In the wake of Nipah virus spreading in the state, the Kerala government has issued an advice against travelling to four northern districts of Thiruvananthapuram. They are Kozhikode, Waynad, Malappuram and Kannur.

In this regard, Health Secretary Rajeev Sadanandan stated that travelling in any part of Kerala is safe. However, travelling to the above four districts is not advisable for the tourists because of Nipah virus.

Earlier, in Kozhikode four deaths were identified due to the deadly and rare virus, that is Nipah. Even in the city of Mangaluru, there was a suspected case of Nipah virus (NiV) which is confirmed by the Karnataka Health Department.

The suspected victim is a 20-year-old who is from Kasargod district that borders Kerala and Karnataka.

She visited her relative who died of the virus infection and she might have contracted from her relative. Her blood samples were sent to the diagnostic centre in Pune.

The increasing virus infection cases and deaths have created a panic situation in not just Kerala and Karnataka, but throughout the country as well.

One such instance for this is, a panic situation was created after finding more than 18 dead bats in the premises of a government school. The health officials after a thorough investigation assured that there is no threat of NiV spreading in that area.

In addition to Karnataka, the health officials in Telangana, Pondicherry and Goa have been put on alert.

The Rajasthan government is creating awareness about NiV. The Gujarat government has begun screening those who are visiting from Kerala.

The central government is trying to probe the outbreak of NiV while majority of state governments urge the citizens to follow advisories issued by the health officials. They also assure that there is no need to panic as the situation at present is under control.

Image credit: Nipah Virus Particles image by NIAID is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Image Reference: https://www.flickr.com/photos/niaid/43112803534