Natural course of Nipah outbreak ‘altered’, says head of virus centre

The natural course of the Nipah outbreak has been “altered”, saysG Arun Kumar, indicating that Kerala’s tryst with the virus may have turned a corner.

This even as the antibody imported from Australia arrived in the State.

Two people who were infected have “completely recovered,” says Kumar, who heads the Manipal Centre for Virus Research, explaining why he thinks the transmission course has been successfully interrupted.

“Eighteen people tested positive, two are surviving, 16 have died, (and there have been) no new cases since last two days,” he told BusinessLine , speaking from the “site” in Kozhikode.

One of the persons who had recovered was a nursing student “who went through every stage” of the viral illness and had completely recovered, he said, having met her recently. The two infected people were recovered because of a combination of things including isolation, supportive care, their body’s immunity and treatment with anti-viral drug Ribavirin , he said.

Antibody imported

In fact, is yet to be used here as “fortunately, they don’t have patients,” he said, as there are “no new cases”.

The antibody was imported by the government through the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) under whose watch it will be administered, if required.

Without getting into details of the procurement, he explains that the antibody had worked well and neutralized the Hendra virus that was similar to Nipah.

If it were to be given, it would be administered to those in the early stage of the Nipah infection, he said.

Tests would be run on people showing symptoms of Nipah and the antibody would be given to neutralise its effects, he said.

The product is not a vaccine and there was not enough quantity of the antibody for it to be given as a prophylactic (preventive), he said.

Second phase thwarted

“The second wave was stemmed because we acted very fast,” said Kumar, confident that the transmission has been contained as the first case had transmitted to 17 people, before the Nipah diagnosis was made and patients were isolated.

There was one other person who had gone to another hospital. But beyond this, the spread has been limited, he said.

Allaying fears on travel and the fruit trade, he said, that transmission of the virus is through bodily fluids and droplets from cough from those who were severely ill.

“Bat to human transmission happens in the rarest of rare cases,” he said.

In a population of 1,00,000 bats only four or five could be carrying the Nipah virus. And the shedding of the virus in secretion is not uniform, he said.

So it required too many things to come together at the same time, he said, allaying the prevailing fear of travel and trading in fruits.

Even the World Health Organisation has advised against any trade or travel restrictions, he said.

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