Kozhikode: In a surprise turn to the Nipah virus sweep in Kerala, which has already claimed at least a dozen lives, the Animal Husbandry Department has said bats are not the hosts and transmittors of the disease.

Following tests conducted at National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal, the departmet said the bats captured from the well of Perambra native Moosa, the fourth member of a family who died of Nipah, were subject to detailed analyses.

The department's announcement upturns all information disseminated till now, holding bats culpable of transmitting the zoonotic disease.

Bats which preyed on insects were tested. Four samples were analysed in detail. Tests will be conducted again. Meanwhile health minister K K Shylaja said the medicine, 50 ampoules of M 102.4 human monoclonal antibody has been dropped in from Australia.

Expert committee chaired by health ministers K K Shylaja has suggested to check the travel details of Mohammed Sabith of Perambra, the first suspected casualty of Nipah. His samples were not able to test as his funeral was conducted before the spread of the disease.

Twenty two people - 13 from Kozhikode, 6 from Malappuram, 2 from Kottayam and one from Thiruvananthapuram - were also suspected to have contracted the virus. Out of them, 4 from Malappuram and 2 from Kottayam have not been infected.

A committee led by the chief secretary will monitor the situation continuously.

Ribavirin tablets, an anti-viral medicine are being distributed and officials have been asked to send the medicines to all affected areas.

In view of the collector's order, the examinations for civil police officers and others being conducted by the Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC) in Kozhikode on May 26 have been postponed.

Kozhikode district medical authorities have received complaints that the staff of the Perambra taluk hospital, where Lini Puthussery, a nurse had died after she contracted the Nipha virus from some patients she had treated, were facing isolation.

Due to the virus scare, there are also reports that residents from affected areas were shifting to the houses of their relatives far away.

The outbreak of the virus has lent a blow to fruit merchants also for whom the Ramzan season would have been a money spinner.

Fruit traders said people are not buying fruits fearing that they may have been infected by fruit bats, which is suspected to be host of the dreaded virus.

"This is the mango season and we are selling local mangoes which were in good demand until the virus struck," said a trader.

"Now no one is buying fruits. People have stopped visiting even juice shops," he said.

According to the Kerala Fruits and Merchants Association, there has been a 40 per cent dip in the sales in the state due to the outbreak of virus, while in Kozhikode district alone, where the virus first erupted, there has been a fall of 90 per cent in sales.

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