For the purpose of early Nipah virus identification, the National Institute of Virology dispatches a mobile BSL-3 lab to Kozhikode.
For the purpose of early Nipah virus identification, the National Institute of Virology dispatches a mobile BSL-3 lab to Kozhikode.
After five cases, including two fatalities, were reported there on September 14, the National Institute of Virology of the ICMR in Pune despatched its mobile BSL-3 laboratory to Kozhikode in Kerala to analyze samples for the Nipah virus there.
According to government sources quoted by PTI, a team of specialists from the Department of Animal Husbandry has also been sent to help the State with animal monitoring. It seems that samples from bats will be gathered to test for the Nipah virus.
In the Kozhikode area, the brain-damaging virus has already claimed the lives of two individuals and infected three more. Since the current outbreak of Nipah, a 24-year-old health worker from Kerala has been identified as the fifth confirmed case.
“The ICMR’s mBSL-3, the region’s first mobile biosafety level-3 containment laboratory, is based in Kozhikode. According to an official source, it will assist in the early testing and diagnosis of the virus in the district itself.
To date, the samples have been sent to Pune’s National Institute of Virology.
The mobile laboratory was established in February of last year to look at newly developing and reemerging viral illnesses that have the potential to be very contagious and fatal to people.
In light of the Nipah virus infections reported in Kozhikode, Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar visited the National Institute of Virology of the ICMR in Pune and convened a review meeting.
A five-person central team made up of specialists from the RML Hospital, NIMHANS, and the National Center for Disease Control has been stationed in Kerala to assess the situation and support the state government in managing the Nipah virus infection.
On September 14, the Kerala government said that there was no need for concern over the Nipah epidemic in the Kozhikode district, but that people should proceed with care as they go about their regular lives.
The monoclonal antibody needed to treat Nipah virus infections has reportedly arrived in Kerala, according to the state’s administration. The Union Health Ministry and the Principal Secretary of the Health Department met earlier in the day, according to State Health Minister Veena George, and now the monoclonal antibody has arrived.
