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Nipah Virus In Kerala: A woman has tested positive for the Nipah virus in Kerala’s Palakkad district. The 38-year-old woman is a resident of Nattukkal and is being given treatment at a private hospital in Perinthalmanna in Malappuram, health officials said on Friday.

The Nipah virus is a Zoonotic virus that primarily spreads through fruit bats, and the virus has a 50 per cent mortality rate, making it one of the most dangerous viral diseases.

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For Nipah virus testing, the woman’s samples were sent to Pune’s National Institute of Virology (NIV). “The district collector informed me that the woman has tested positive for Nipah virus,” president of the local panchayat Muhammed Saleem KP said, as per a Hindustan Times report.

Palakkad health authorities made a list of the places the woman had visited and the people she came in contact with before testing positive. At least 100 people are expected to be high-risk, an official said, as per the report.

After the new case came up in the districts, containment zones were also declared. “Ward number 8 was declared as containment zones along with a few other wards, partially, that fall within a three-kilometre-radius,” Saleem added.

Meanwhile, a suspected case from Malappuram district is currently awaiting test results.

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The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has developed a portable test kit for detecting Nipah virus cases with 100 per cent accuracy, which can provide results within 1- 2 hours.

"Based on amplification of viral gene without the need for a specialised machine at the field level. It's 100 per cent sensitive and specific,” said Dr Naveen Kumar, Director, ICMR-NIV, Pune, as quoted by news agency ANI.