Fruit bats- source of Nipah outbreak in 2 Kerala districts, confirms ICMR
New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research has confirmed that fruit bats were the primary source of the Nipah outbreak in Kerala's Kozhikode and Malappuram districts, where 17 people died due to the virus earlier this year.
Initially, a central medical team had ruled out bats as the primary source of the infection after the samples collected from bats in two Kerala districts tested negative.
Later, another medical team in its report to the Union health ministry said bats cannot be ruled out as the samples were collected from insectivorous bats, which are not known to be Nipah carriers.
An ICMR official said the samples from fruit bats tested positive for the virus, confirming that they were the source of Nipah infection in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts.
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