KOZHIKODE: The state is on alert after a 45-year-old man who died in Maruthonkara two weeks ago, a 40-year-old man who died in Ayanchery panchayat last day and two others who are undergoing treatment have been diagnosed with Nipah. The nine-year-old son of the forty-five-year-old man and his twenty-two-year-old brother-in-law were diagnosed with the disease. The nine-year-old is on ventilator. Seven people are under treatment. There are 168 people in the contact list in the district. 127 of them are health workers.

Those who need treatment will be shifted to the isolation ward of the medical college. Those without symptoms can be monitored at home.

A detailed contact list will be prepared. CCTV will also be checked. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandavya revealed in a press conference yesterday that the deaths of residents of Ayanchery and Maruthonkara were due to Nipah.

Kozhikode district is affected by Nipah after two years. A four-member central health team will reach Kozhikode today.

Nipah virus was confirmed when the fluid of a 40-year-old native of Ayanchery, who died at Aster Mims Hospital in Kozhikode on Monday, was tested at the National Institute of Virology. He was in contact with a 45-year-old native of Maruthonkara, who died on August 30 with symptoms of Nipah, at the hospital in Kuttiyadi.

A native of Ayanchery had fever on September 6. On September 8, he sought treatment at the Ayanchery Primary Health Centre, then at the Villyapally Health Centre, Vadakara District Hospital and a private clinic. As he got worse, he was admitted to Vadakara Cooperative Hospital and later to Aster Mims, Kozhikode. The body will be cremated by following the Covid protocol.

The death of the Maruthonkara native was not found to be due to Nipah. So no fluid test was done. Suspicions were raised when his wife, nine-year-old child, 22-year-old brother-in-law and his ten-month-old child showed Nipah symptoms. They are undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kozhikode. Two of them have now been confirmed with the virus. Results of others are awaited.

Health Minister Veena George have urged everyone to weak masks.