After ICMR nod, Kerala to conduct tests to detect Nipah virus
On Wednesday, no fresh Nipah infections were reported in the state with 61 more samples of high-risk contacts testing negative
Kerala health minister Veena George on Wednesday said that the state received recognition from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct TrueNat tests to detect cases of Nipah virus.
“Hospitals with level-2 biosafety labs will be able to conduct the tests. An SOP [standard operating procedure] will be prepared. Through this measure, tests can be conducted at more centres and faster results from samples can be achieved. This will strengthen our preventive measures. Samples for TrueNat tests will be sent to the virology labs at Thonnakkal and Kozhikode,” the health minister said.
On Wednesday, no fresh Nipah infections were reported in the state with 61 more samples of high-risk contacts testing negative. So far, the state has tested 323 samples, out of which six returned positive and the rest negative. Out of those six positive cases, two individuals have lost their lives, while four others are under treatment. The contact list has been curtailed to 980 persons, after many individuals who had contact with the first index case, who died on August 30, have completed their incubation period of the virus. Since they didn’t develop symptoms in the last 21 days, they are unlikely to contract the virus.
“The district surveillance team of the health department made critical interventions in the initial period of the outbreak, which helped to control it. This is the first time that the index case in an outbreak was identified even as the transmission went on. The collection of samples from the man who died on Sept 11 was also key to identifying the presence of virus,” George said in a statement in Thiruvananthapuram.
Kerala, she said, will conduct a seroprevalence study to understand why Kozhikode district was reporting repeated outbreaks of the Nipah virus. The study will be conducted by testing the antibodies of the people who have been named in the ‘high-risk’ contact list this year, she said.
The minister also said that the state had tested 81 samples this year before the outbreak suspecting Nipah virus and that preventive measures to be taken against the zoonotic virus were part of the annual health calendar.
The nine-year-old boy, infected with Nipah, has been taken off the oxygen support and has shown signs of clinical improvement. The conditions of three other infected people is satisfactory, she said.
