[1/2] Members of a medical team from Kozhikode Medical College carry areca nut and guava fruit samples to conduct tests for Nipah virus in Maruthonkara village in Kozhikode district, Kerala, India, September 13, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer Acquire Licensing RightsNew Delhi, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Experts have fanned out in India's southern state of Kerala to collect samples of fluid from bats and fruit trees in a region where the deadly Nipah virus has killed two people and three more have tested positive. Samples of bat urine, animal droppings and half-eaten fruit were collected from Maruthonkara, the village where the first victim lived, set beside a 300-acre (121-hectare) forest home to several bat species. Fruit bats from the area had tested positive for the Nipah virus during an outbreak in 2018, the state's first. Kerala's first Nipah outbreak killed 21 of the 23 infected, while subsequent outbreaks in 2019 and 2021 killed two people.

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Persons: Stringer, Veena George, George, Kerala's, Rupam Jain, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: Kozhikode Medical College, REUTERS, Thomson Locations: Kozhikode district, Kerala, India, Delhi, Maruthonkara, state's, Kozhikode, Karnataka, Tamil, Malaysia, Singapore, South Asia