Rare Chandipura virus identified as cause of brain fever deaths in south India

A deadly new virus could be on the rampage in south India. Since June, a mysterious "brain fever" claimed the lives of 163 children in Andhra Pradesh and spread to nearby Maharashtra. The killer was swift and lethal - most children died within 24 hours. Nobody could explain why.

Now scientists at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, believe they have zeroed in on the culprit-a rare, mosquito-borne virus not generally known to kill. The treatment for the fever, however, continues unchanged.

There were suspects galore for the epidemic - the common one being Japanese encephalitis (JE), a familiar mosquito-borne viral disease that claimed more than 600 lives in 1986. A laboratory in Hyderabad found only three JE cases. But a team of experts from Delhi that visited the affected areas concluded the disease was most likely JE.

Their premise was based on clinical evidence. The confusion only deepened the mystery. Samples were then sent to NIV. The true identity of the killer added a further twist to the tale. The culprit, revealed NIV in a confidential report to the Union Health Ministry, is the Chandipura virus.

It belongs to the same family as the rabies virus and is rarely found in human beings. The revelation raises more questions than it answers. For the Chandipura virus is nowhere near the top of the list of killer viruses. "It is normally not pathogenic," says Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay, an expert on the Chandipura virus.