Health officials in the south Indian state of Kerala say nine people have died in confirmed and suspected cases of the deadly Nipah virus.
Three victims have tested positive for the virus in the past fortnight. The results from the remaining six samples will be available later on Monday, reports BBC.
Twenty-five others have been hospitalized with symptoms of the infection in Kozhikode, officials said.
Nipah is an infection which can be transmitted to humans from animals. There is no vaccination for the virus which has a mortality rate of 70%.
Nipah virus is also “top of the list” of 10 priority diseases that the WHO has identified as potentials for the next major outbreak.
Kerala’s health secretary Rajeev Sadanandan told reporters that a nurse who treated the patients had also died.
“We have sent blood and body fluid samples of all suspected cases for confirmation to National Institute of Virology in Pune. So far, we got confirmation that three deaths were because of Nipah,” he said.
“We are now concentrating on precautions to prevent the spread of the disease since the treatment is limited to supportive care.”
