A 14-year-old boy has died from Nipah virus in Kerala, India.

Sixty more people are now being classed as “high risk” after potentially coming into contact with the virus.

The boy went into cardiac arrest after contracting the virus which can cause a lethal, brain-swelling fever.

Nipah, which comes from fruit bats and animals, has no cure and no vaccine.

It is classed as a “priority pathogen” by the World Health Organisation because of its potential to trigger an epidemic.

In a statement on Saturday, Kerala health minister Veena George said the government has issued orders to set up 25 committees to identify and isolate affected people.

Dr Anoop Kumar, director of critical care medicine at Aster MIMS Hospital in Calicut, said one positive case of Nipah had been diagnosed in a schoolboy and people who had been in contact with him were being watched.

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“There is a minimum chance of an outbreak of Nipah virus at this stage,” he said, adding that the situation would be monitored for the next seven to 10 days.

There are 214 people on the primary contact list of the boy, the statement said.

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Among them, 60 are in the high-risk category, it said, and isolation wards have been set up at health institutions to treat patients.

Family members of the affected patient were kept at a local hospital for observation and others who might be at risk were asked to isolate at home.

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Nipah has been linked to the deaths of dozens of people in Kerala since its first appearance in the southern state in 2018.

The virus was first identified 25 years ago in Malaysia and has led to outbreaks in Bangladesh, India and Singapore.

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