Since its first meeting with the NIPAH virus (NIV) in 2018, when 23 cases were identified in the focus, Kerala reported a few rare and accidental events of the NIV almost every year.
This year, the state reported four cases between May and July and unusual, all these were primary cases. Of these, three cases in the Palakkad-Malappuram districts were reported in the Palakkad-Malappuram districts in the Palakkad-Malappuram districts in the 15-day range, but each was random spilling, without secondary infection.
The exact mechanism of spilling the human floodplain in Kerala in Kerala remains elusive, although the latest hypothesis designed by an important microbiologist and public health expert T. Jacob John suggests that the repetition of rare, randomly distributed events in the state increases the rare capacity to transmit floods.
The possibility of transmission of air
Dr. John points out that the urination of bats from roosting sites can produce aerosols, especially when the droplets of bats of dust particles (viral RNA have been detected in BAT urine in many previous studies) are transmitted by air by air. It proposes to explore air sampling methods for floodplains around trees with BAT BAT, except for laboratory studios.
The fact that three of this year’s people affected lived in houses surrounded by bats with a relatively high density of bats is also coping with the possibility that they could be exposed to bats-to-be-only or as aerosols.
Health officials claim that there were clear evidence that some worrying events preceded three random human infections of Nipah.
The risk of scattering
“The Local People Said That The Bat Roosts in the Affected Localities Had Been There Since Ages. But Recently, There Had Been Some Attempts by Local People to Drive Away the Bats Through the Burstese of Crackers Risk by Causing Stress-Induced Viral Shedding in Bats and Leading to the Wider Dispersion of Infcted Bats, ”an official Says.
In recent online interaction with public health and Kerala scientists, Jonathan Epstein, Ecohealth Alliance epidemiologist, and one who conducted extensive NIV research that human behavior is the primary risk of niv spilling and that viral blending and outbreaks between bats.
Spilling could lead to an increased viral release in bats (due to stressful events such as habitat threat, food deficiency, mating or birth times) and random high -risk human behavior.
“Bats have a crucial role in the environment and rather than try to remove them from the landscape, it is human behavior that must be modified to exist minimal interactions with the human bat. In the future, the most likely way to prevent accidental spilling of NIPAH is to” learn to live with bats “.
Monitoring of bat colonies
This includes the protection of natural habitats, reducing high -risk human behavior through public education, regular monitoring of bat colonies, strengthening supervision and rapid reaction outbreak, all of which encapsulated in the Zero Nipah campaign, which the state started in 2019.
“We have already launched a risk stratification of districts, mapping of bats of bats and studying bat density in each. Increased bats density, periodic release of viruses and decreasing immunity to NIV over time can increase the risk of spilling,” the healthcare professional said.
“Public education about the ecology of bats and beliefs is that it is their behavior that has to change in order to avoid nipahu will not be an easy task. We are in the process of developing IEC messages – which must be nuance and focused – to understand how they can reduce their vulnerability through behavior,” said the official.
Kerala has already strengthened AES (acute encephalitis syndrome) through syndromic supervision, so nipah detection and treatment are possible. In hospitals, stricter infection control procedures, including the proper education of healthcare professionals, that universal preventive measures such as camouflage must always be maintained inside hospitals.
Published – 2 August 2025 20:08
