Alert issued in three districts after two suspected cases of Nipah virus found in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram: Following the discovery of two suspected Nipah virus infections, Keralan health officials have issued a notice in the districts of Kozhikode, Malappuram, and Palakkad.
According to Kerala Health Minister Veena George, the districts of Palakkad and Malappuram are where the probable Nipah virus infections are located.
“An alert has been issued in three districts of Kerala, namely Kozhikode, Malappuram, and Palakkad, in connection with two new Nipah virus cases,” she said.
The infections have been verified by testing carried out at medical college hospitals in Kozhikode and Malappuram. For further confirmation, samples have also been sent to Pune’s National Institute of Virology (NIV).
The government has instructed authorities to bolster preventative efforts to limit the virus’s spread, even though a definitive confirmation is still pending.
To coordinate the reaction, 26 committees have been established across districts, according to the health minister. State and district-level helplines will be established, and police assistance will be requested to compile a contact list. District collectors are instructed to organize for the declaration of containment zones, if necessary.
The sole laboratory in the nation that cultivates the Nipah virus is the National Institute of Virology (NIV), located in Pune. The virus, which is zoonotic—that is, it spreads from animals to people—can also travel directly between people or via tainted food. Fever, headaches, muscular pains, nausea, vomiting, sore throat, lightheadedness, altered awareness, and atypical pneumonia are all signs of the Nipah virus.
It causes a variety of ailments in infected individuals, ranging from severe respiratory sickness and deadly encephalitis to asymptomatic (subclinical) infection. One of the most severe viral infections is Nipah Virus Disease (NiVD), which has a 50% fatality rate.
In order to provide diagnostic surge capacity and improve on-site laboratory services during outbreaks of known and unknown high-risk diseases, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) created RAMBAAN, a Mobile BSL-3 [MBSL-3] laboratory.
In 2023 and 2024, the Nipah virus epidemic in Kerala prompted the deployment of RAMBAAN, a made-in-India quick-action mobile lab. “The MBSL-3 was successfully deployed and operationalized for the first time in response to the Nipah virus (NiV) outbreak in Kozhikode, Kerala, India, in September 2023 and again in the Malappuram District of Kerala state in July 2024,” said the ICMR.
This “laboratory on wheels” is a major step forward for India’s public health emergency response and epidemic investigation. Additionally, the ICMR is developing a domestic Nipah virus vaccine.