Health officials are still unclear about the source of the Nipah virus in Kozhikode even two weeks after the death of Mohammed Hashim, a 12-year-old boy, due to the infection.
Sources said on Saturday that the samples of rambutan fruits and arecanut collected from ward number 9 of the Chathamangalam grama panchayat, where the boy’s house is located, have turned negative for the virus. Relatives, neighbours and parents of the boy had earlier told a Central team that he had eaten the fruits that could have been bitten by fruit bats, which are Nipah carriers. The samples were examined at the National Institute of Virology lab at Pune. Some wild boar samples in the area too did not have the virus presence. Now, results of the live bat samples collected by the NIV bat survey team are awaited.
Hashim had died on September 5. Last week, the body fluid samples collected from 25 goats on the premises of Hashim’s house had tested negative for the virus. Some of the fruit bat carcasses collected from adjoining areas too did not have the presence of Nipah. Some bird droppings collected from a bat habitat across a river near a property owned by Vayoli Aboobacker, Hashim’s father, too gave negative results. This habitat is diagonally opposite to a rambutan tree on the property.
