Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Health Minister Veena George said that the samples collected from bats near Kozhikode from where a 12-year-old boy succumbed to death early this month has shown the presence of Nipah antibodies. She said the results of the samples collected from bats from the area where the boy lived have shown the presence of antibodies of Nipah.

Health Minister added, "Antibodies have been found in two different varieties of bats, whose samples were collected from the vicinity of the boy's house. The samples were tested at the National Institute of Virology, Pune. The ICMR is conducting more studies on it and they will be informing us".

The NIV team had collected several samples from the area and more reports are likely to come out in the coming days. The 12-year-old boy died on September 5 after receiving treatment for a few weeks at a few hospitals in Kozhikode and it was only at the later stage, tests proved that the boy was suffering from Nipah virus attack. More studies will now be conducted on how the boy got the virus attack. Various teams, from the Centre and the state, had arrived at Kozhikode as soon as Nipah was reported and numerous samples were also collected.

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