Staff members install a sign reading "Nipah isolation ward, entry strictly prohibited" at a hospital where a ward is being prepared for suspected Nipah virus patients in Kozhikode district, Kerala, India, September 12, 2023.
REUTERS/Stringer Acquire Licensing RightsNEW DELHI, Sept 13 (Reuters) - India's southern state of Kerala shut some schools, offices and public transport, authorities said on Wednesday, as they scrambled to rein in the spread of the rare and deadly brain-damaging Nipah virus that has killed two people.
The victim's daughter and brother-in-law, both infected, are in an isolation ward, with other family members and neighbours being tested.
The Nipah virus was first identified in 1999 during an outbreak of illness among pig farmers and others in close contact with the animals in Malaysia and Singapore.
In Kerala's first Nipah outbreak, 21 of the 23 infected died, while outbreaks in 2019 and 2021 claimed two more lives.
Persons:
Stringer, Veena George, Rupam Jain, Michael Perry, Clarence Fernandez
Organizations:
REUTERS, state's, National Virology Institute, Reuters, Thomson
Locations:
Kozhikode district, Kerala, India, DELHI, Kozhikode, district's, Marutonkara, Malaysia, Singapore