Fruit bats, rabbit test negative for Nipah

Samples of fruit bats and a rabbit collected from Soopikkada in Perambra, where the first cases of Nipah infection were reported, have also tested negative for the virus. The tests were conducted at the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory in Bhopal.

District animal husbandry officer AC Mohandas said further epidemiological studies would be carried out on bats and other species till the source of the infection was identified. A team from National Institute of Epidemiology arrived in Kozhikode on Saturday. Samples of bats found in a well in the area tested negative for the virus earlier. Of the 201 human samples tested, 18 tested positive, including the 16 dead.

As many as 13 were admitted to Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital on Saturday with suspected Nipah symptoms.


Additional chief secretary, department of health and family welfare, Rajeev Sadanandan said the medicine from Australia would be given only to new NiV patients.