Inside the Race to Stop a Deadly Viral Outbreak in India

September 22, 2023

(Wired) – Diagnosing Nipah quickly has been Kerala’s biggest strength, giving it an edge in the battle with the virus and preventing its spread outside of the state. This has relied on knowledgable doctors, like Anoop and his colleagues, and having testing facilities that can handle samples at breakneck speed. Decisive action—to contact trace, lock down, quarantine—has also made Kerala’s response exemplary. This is how an infectious disease containment strategy should work.

Nevertheless, this is still an uneasy situation. This is Kerala’s fourth outbreak in five years, and with the virus being able to infect someone and then hide for weeks, if Nipah keeps spilling into humans this regularly in Kerala, it will eventually spread beyond the state. And stopping those spillovers hasn’t seen much progress. (Read More)