NEW DELHI, May 28 (Xinhua) -- After the southern state of Kerala, another Indian state -- Goa in the west -- Monday got its first suspected case of Nipah.
Goa's Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane told the media that the suspected Nipah virus-infected patient, who travelled to the state from Kerala by a train, has been quarantined in the Goa Medical College, a government hospital.
"It is not clear yet whether it is a Nipah case. We will have to wait for test results. The person admitted himself to the hospital, after he felt he had some symptoms similar to those affected by Nipah and he has been kept in the isolation ward," he said.
Nipah virus has already claimed the lives of 14 people in Kerala. Apart from the 14 deaths in Kerala's Kozhikode and Mallapuram districts, some 94 people have been quarantined in their homes while 17 others are under treatment in hospitals.
The Indian Health Ministry last week claimed to have contained the virus. "It was a highly localised infection and we have been able to contain it well," Indian Health Secretary Preeti Sudan had said.
Health officials have identified the bat-infested well in the house in Kozhikode district as the likely epicentre of the outbreak of Nipah virus in this country.
This is the third outbreak of Nipah virus in India. Two other outbreaks of the virus were reported in 2001 and 2007, respectively, in eastern state of West Bengal, claiming 50 lives.
