Another epidemic underway in India while the current epidemic still rages.

Nipah virus kills boy, 12, sparking a health emergency in southern India (The Telegraph)

Authorities are racing to identify more than 180 people the boy came into contact with before he died

The death of a 12-year-old boy from the deadly Nipah virus has sparked a health emergency in the southern Indian state of Kerala, as the authorities race to identify more than 180 people he came into contact with.

Before he died, the boy was admitted to five separate hospitals in Kerala and already two healthcare workers, as well as his mother, have been isolated after developing symptoms.

The World Health Organization (WHO) lists Nipah as a virus with pandemic potential. It attacks the brain, can spread from human-to-human and has a fatality rate as high as 75 per cent.

Kerala has previously seen several outbreaks of Nipah and in 2018, 17 out of the 18 people infected died. India’s worst outbreak of the virus occurred in 2001 in the northwestern state of West Bengal when 45 out of 66 people confirmed to have had Nipah died.

Public health experts are concerned the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic could result in this Nipah outbreak becoming the worst in India’s history. Kerala is reporting over 60 percent of India’s new daily Covid-19 cases and its hospitals are already overflowing.

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