Karnataka CM Orders to Take Precautions to Prevent Nipah Virus

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai directed his officials to be cautious against the Nipah virus and adopt precautions to prevent the viral outbreak in the state.

Bommai said that officials have been advised to take precautionary measures amidst Nipah virus cases reported in the neighbouring state of Kerala.

The Chief Minister said that the health department secretaries and a panel of experts have been instructed to take early measures.

The Karnataka government had on Tuesday issued an advisory to prevent the outbreak of infection and instructed the administration to monitor arrivals from Kerala for Nipah virus symptoms like fever, altered mental status, severe weakness, headache, respiratory distress, cough, vomiting, muscle pain, convulsion and diarrhoea.

The advisory also asked the authorities to spread public awareness in this regard and develop a systematic surveillance system to identify clusters of encephalitis cases for early detection of Nipah outbreaks.

Notably, Kerala registered the death of an eight-year-old due to the Nipah virus on Sunday following which the Centre advised immediate public health measures for the state. On Wednesday, 20 more samples that were sent for testing at the NIV laboratory, Pune turned negative, reported Times Now.

State Health Minister Veena George said that one cannot completely claim things are fine, but the results give us cheer, the report said

"According to the rules of Nipah spread, after the last case is reported, then one waits for 21 days and then for another 21 days, if there are no more fresh cases, then one can say Nipah spread has been contained, so we have to wait more and as such things are fine," said George.

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