A seven-year-old boy from Malappuram district, Kerala has been diagnosed with West Nile fever, a relatively unknown viral infection in the Malabar region in recent times.
West Nile fever is spread by Culex mosquitoes.
Its symptoms include fever, headache, tiredness, and body aches, nausea, vomiting, occasionally with a skin rash on the trunk of the body, and swollen lymph glands.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says West Nile virus transmits to humans through bites from infected mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes become infected when they feed on infected birds.