Thiruvananthapuram / New Delhi:  After three confirmed deaths from the mysterious new “Nipah virus” in Kerala’s Kozhikode, the Centre has sent a team to Kerala. Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda has asked the chief of the Central Disease Control Body to visit the affected district and take steps.

The Director of National Centre for Disease Control is expected to lead the team and work with the State Government to try and contain the infection.

Three of the 10 deaths caused by a mystery viral fever in Kozhikode were confirmed to have been caused by the Nipah virus, the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune has said. The Nipah virus is a lesser studied virus, which the World Health Organisation calls “a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans.” There are no known drugs or vaccines to treat it. According to NIV director Dr. Devendra T. Mourya,  the virus has been causing “focal outbreaks in very rare situations among humans who accidentally come into contact (with the virus) from bats.”

The first fatalities in Kozhikode were two siblings in Changorath Panchayat of Kozhikode. Twenty-three-year-old Sabith’s death on May 5 did not initially raise alarms, but when his 26-year-old brother Salih died on May 18, the situation took a serious turn. Their aunt, 50-year-old Miriam, died a few days later.