KL-NIPAH-ROW

Row over Nipah death toll in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 24 (PTI): A row erupted Saturday
over the Nipah death toll in Kerala as an international
medical journal stated that the deadly virus had claimed 21
lives, contradicting the official figure of 17 deaths.
According to the state government figures, the Nipah
virus hasclaimed 17 lives -- 14 in Kozhikode and three in
neighbouringMalappuram since its outbreak in May this year.
The figure includes the death of Mohammed Sabith, the
firstvictim, whose samples had not been tested for Nipah.
However, a recent report published in the 'Journal of
Infectiousdiseases' hasstated that the total Nipah deaths in
Kerala was 21.
Interestingly, state health secretary Rajeev Sadanandan
wasamong the experts who prepared the study report in the
globaljournal.
Reacting to media reports on the matter, HealthMinister
K K Shylaja said as per the government estimate, 18 people had
tested positive for the deadly virus.
The government had updated the death toll as 17 in July
after including the death of Sabith, the first victim whose
samples had not been tested for Nipah.
The others had only showed symptoms of the deadly virus,
but health officials could not confirm the infection as their
samples were not collected, she told reporters in Kozhikode
Saturday.
It seemed that the journal, however, counted the suspected
deaths also as Nipah deaths, she said.
Sadanandan rejected the controversy over the study report
and said there was no confusion over the figures.
Of the total of 246 samples sent, 18 had been clinically
confirmed as positive, he said.
"When you are not able to check the samples, then it
remains in the list of probables.
When we verified the case records, four cases had been
found as probables, but there were no samples," he told PTI.
"Thus there were a total of 23 cases. One index case
(Sabith), 18 confirmed cases and four probable cases," he said
adding that the academic journal has its own criteria to
prepare the report. PTI LGK UD APR
APR APR