NEW DELHI, June 4 (Xinhua) -- A 23-year-old man admitted in a private hospital in southern India state of Kerala was found tested positive for the deadly Nipah virus, officials said Tuesday.
The case was detected in Ernakulam district, about 213 km north of Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala.
Authorities have cautioned people to follow instructions from health department in wake of detection of the case.
"A suspected case of Nipah infection has been reported in Ernakulam," a government spokesman said." Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has informed that the government is closely monitoring the situation. The chief minister has also requested everyone to follow the instructions of the health department.
The local government has stepped up its efforts in wake of the detection of the case and urged people not to panic.
"While we need to be cautious, it is no cause for panic. We have ramped up a series of measures to tackle the problem," Vijayan said in a statement. "Contact tracing, case isolation, quality care and community engagement are being done diligently. Care must be taken to not spread rumours over social media."
Reports said India's National Institute of Virology, which tested the man's blood samples, confirmed the presence of the virus.
Last year 17 people died from Nipah infection in the state's Kozhikode and Malappuram districts.
According to the World Health Organization, Nipah virus infection is a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans. The natural host of the virus are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae Family, Pteropus genus.
Typically, the human infection presents as an encephalitic syndrome marked by fever, headache, drowsiness, disorientation, mental confusion and coma, which can potentially lead to death.
