Health officials in India are racing Thursday to contain an outbreak of the Nipah virus, which has already killed two and carries a fatality rate the World Health Organization says is as high as 75%.
Around 800 people have been tested over the last few days in the country’s southern Kerala state, with two adults and a child placed in a hospital after receiving a positive diagnosis, according to Reuters.
“We are testing human beings . . . and at the same time experts are collecting fluid samples from forested areas that could be the hotspot for the spread,” Veena George, the state’s health minister, told the news agency. “We are in a stage of hypervigilance and detection.”