The death toll from an outbreak of the rare Nipah virus in southern India has risen to at least 10, officials said yesterday, with another 90 people quarantined to try to stem the spread of the disease, reports AFP from New Delhi. Authorities in Kerala state have ordered emergency measures to control the virus, which is spread by fruit bats. Three of the fatalities are members of the same family -- dead bats were found in a well at their home.

"We sent 18 samples for testing. Out of these 12 tested positive. Ten of those who tested positive have died and the remaining two are undergoing treatment," a health official in Kerala's Kozhikode district, the centre of the outbreak, told AFP. More than 90 people who have come into contact with those who died have been isolated, authorities said.

Nipah has killed more than 260 people in Malaysia, Bangladesh and India since 1998 and has a mortality rate of nearly 70 percent, according to the World Health Organization.