New Delhi: Samples of mosquitoes and dead crows have been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Alappuzha to find the source of the West Nile Virus which claimed the life of a six-year-old boy in Kerala's Malappuram district.
West Nile Fever is a mosquito-borne zoonotic disease and is related to viruses that cause Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever and St Louis encephalitis.
It is transmitted to humans via mosquito bites. The mosquitoes get the virus through infected birds.
"Human infection is most often due to bites from infected mosquitoes. To date, no human-to-human transmission of WNV through casual contact has been documented.
"Infection with WNV is either asymptomatic (no symptoms) in around 80 per cent of infected people, or can lead to West Nile fever or severe West Nile disease," a senior Health Ministry official said.
A government official said samples of mosquitoes were collected from various sites in Venniyoor in Malappuram district by the Vector Control Department officials and they were sent for testing.
"Besides, remains of four dead crows which were found in and around Venniyoor have also been sent to NIV, Alappuzha for testing," the official said.
"Officials at the Animal Husbandry Department laboratory in Malappuram conducted a post-mortem of the dead crows to take out their brains, livers and kidneys and then sent them for testing," the government official said.
The results are awaited, the official said.
On Tuesday, the Health Ministry along with officials from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had reviewed the state's preparedness and the action taken to deal with West Nile Fever (WNF) in Mallapuram district.
According to Health Ministry officials, the child's death could be the first fatality due to the vector-borne disease reported from the country.
A multi-disciplinary central team is already deputed in Mallapuram to investigate various epidemiological aspects of West Nile Virus (WNV) and also to help the district administration in its prevention and management.
The state has been advised to follow the National Vector Borne Disease Control Program (NVBDCP) guidelines of personal protective measures to prevent mosquito bites.
The ministry has also recommended that vector surveillance and control be carried out in coordination with the NVBDCP.
"It has been advised that all cases of Japanese Encephalitis (JE)/Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) are to be investigated as per guidelines of JE/AES and also tested for West Nile Virus. Further, the community is to be sensitized through IEC campaigns on use of personal protective measures to prevent mosquito bites as per the NVBDCP guidelines," a senior Health Ministry official said.
The boy was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital after he tested positive for the virus. He died on Monday.
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United Nations (PTI): A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the world body "hopes" that in India and any country that is having elections, people's "political and civil rights" are "protected" and everyone is able to vote in a "free and fair" atmosphere.
Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric made these remarks on Thursday while he was responding to a question on the "political unrest" in India ahead of the upcoming national elections in the wake of the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the freezing of the opposition Congress Party's bank accounts.
"What we very much hope that in India, as in any country that is having elections, that everyone's rights are protected, including political and civil rights, and everyone is able to vote in an atmosphere that is free and fair," Dujarric said at the daily press briefing Thursday.
The response from the United Nations comes a day after the US also reacted to a similar question on Kejriwal's arrest and freezing of the Congress party's bank accounts.
On Wednesday, hours after India summoned a senior US diplomat to protest remarks on Kejriwal's arrest, Washington reiterated that it encourages fair, transparent, timely legal processes.
On the US diplomat being summoned in Delhi, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said "I'm not going to talk about any private diplomatic conversations. But of course what we have said publicly is what I just said from here, that we encourage fair, transparent, timely legal processes. We don't think anyone should object to that, and we'll make the same thing clear privately."
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officials summoned Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gloria Berbena to their office in South Block in the Indian capital. The meeting lasted for more than 30 minutes.
On Thursday, India said the US State Department's recent remarks on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are "unwarranted" and asserted the country is "proud of its independent and robust democratic institutions" and committed to protect them from any form of undue external influences.
Any "external imputation" on India's electoral and legal processes is "completely unacceptable", MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in New Delhi during his weekly press briefing.
In India, legal processes are driven "only by the rule of law", Jaiswal said on Thursday.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said in a statement that India took strong objection to the remarks of the Spokesperson of the US State Department about certain legal proceedings in India.
"India's legal processes are based on an independent judiciary which is committed to objective and timely outcomes. Casting aspersions on that is unwarranted," the MEA had said.
The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Kejriwal in a money laundering case linked to the excise policy 'scam'.
The case pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 which was later scrapped.