Nipah virus antibodies detected in bats in Wayanad

Kerala will intensify the disease surveillance activities and maintain vigil against Nipah across the State as Nipah virus antibodies have been detected in bats in Wayanad as well in Indian Council of Medical Research’s bat surveillance studies, Health Minister Veena George said here on Wednesday.

Kerala will intensify the disease surveillance activities and maintain vigil against Nipah across the State as Nipah virus antibodies have been detected in bats in Wayanad as well in Indian Council of Medical Research’s bat surveillance studies, Health Minister Veena George said here on Wednesday.

ICMR’s ongoing bat surveillance survey has detected NiV antibodies in Pteropus bat species in 14 States and one Union Territory, indicating a wider presence of the virus and possibilities of outbreaks across the country. In that sense, all districts in Kerala are vulnerable to NiV outbreaks as fruit bats have a wide presence in the State. Thus the detection of NiV antibodies in bat samples from Wayanad is not surprising as it is an extension of the same ecosystem in Kozhikode, Ms. George said, while addressing a media conference.

Wayanad is also being prepared to strengthen all One Health-related activities and public awareness campaigns and training is being imparted to all health-care personnel in Wayanad on maintaining a high level of suspicion whenever unusual animal deaths occur or patients turn up with acute respiratory syndrome or unusual presentations with acute encephalitis syndrome are reported.

In Kozhikode, which has reported three of the four Nipah outbreaks experienced by Kerala, a separate Standard Operating Procedures document has been developed for the prevention, early detection and management of Nipah virus infection.

In a first, Kerala is also institutionalising all its inter-departmental Nipah-related activities being carried out in the State on the One Health platform and setting up the Kerala One Health Centre for Nipah Research at Kozhikode. It will formally start functioning on Thursday. The One Health centre for the time being will function from the microbiology lab at the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode, which has already been carrying out Nipah testing and surveillance activities since the 2021 NiV outbreak. The centre could be developed as a full-fledged institution for NiV prevention, treatment and research in future.

Ms. George said three institutions -- the Institute of Advanced Virology and Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology in the capital and National Institute of Virology, Pune -- have been tasked with the development of indigenous monoclonal antibodies against NiV from the survivors of the outbreak. This is an important development as this is the first time monoclonal antibodies against NiV will be developed in the country. This will be more effective as a drug than imported monoclonal antibodies (from Australia) as the NiV strain which caused the outbreak here is different.

Even though the State went through four NiV outbreaks, very little has been scientifically established about the viral spillover events and transmission route, the timing of the outbreaks or why the spillover events are focussed around a region in Kerala. The ICMR is also in the dark about this, Ms. George said adding climate change and change in agriculture/vegetation patterns are variables that can influence these events.