Nipah virus will keep coming back to Kerala because it lives in bats, an expert told the New Indian Express on 8 November.

The expert said the state has to learn to live with the virus, since the outbreaks will not stop.

The warning comes as a 43-year-old patient is treated for Nipah at the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode.

Kerala's first outbreak, in 2018, recorded 23 cases. The case fatality rate was 91 per cent.

The virus is carried by the Indian flying fox, a fruit bat. About 25 per cent of bats sampled in 2018 tested positive.

People can catch it through fruit the bats have eaten or palm sap they have visited. Risk peaks from April to September.

The WHO lists Nipah as a priority pathogen. It kills 40 to 75 per cent of people it infects, and there is no vaccine.

Human-to-human spread has been seen only once in Kerala, in a cluster in 2023.

The National Institute of Virology has developed monoclonal antibodies for Nipah, and they are used to treat patients.

Kerala opened a One Health Centre for Nipah Research and Resilience in Kozhikode in 2023 to track the virus and prepare for outbreaks.

Read the full Nipah virus Kerala report on Trends News Stories.

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