Nipah kills fourth of a Kerala family

The death toll due to Nipah rose to 12 in Kerala, with one more person succumbing to the deadly virus here on Thursday. The deceased, V Moosa (61), had been battling for life for the past few days in a private hospital here and was on ventilator support.

This is the fourth death in Moosa's family. Moosa's sons Mohammed Saliah (28), Mohammed Sadiq (26) and a relative Mariumma had died earlier. While two of the deaths have been confirmed due to Nipah, the blood samples of one of his sons had not been tested for the virus, sources said.

On Thursday, a high-level team appointed by the Centre said that Nipah virus wasn't a major outbreak and only a local occurrence. The Central team report stated that so far 14 confirmed cases and 20 suspected cases had been reported. Twelve deaths have also been reported so far, 9 from Kozhikode and three from Malappuram.

Kozhikode district medical officer, Dr Jayasree E said, "Around 160 samples have been sent for testing at the virology institute and 13 cases have been found to be positive."