Three Kerala districts on alert after Nipah cases reported in Malappuram, Palakkad
District Collectors have been instructed to make the necessary arrangements for declaring containment zones if required. Helplines at both state and district levels are being activated.Minister Veena George said the government is moving swiftly to prevent further spread of the infection.A Nipah virus case was confirmed in Malappuram district in early May, after a 42-year-old resident of the Valanchery municipality area tested positive for the virus. Health authorities said she was under treatment at a hospital in Perinthalmanna. Later that month, the Health Minister declared the sole Nipah virus patient virus-free, after the patient tested negative in two consecutive samples. - Ends
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The Hindu
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- The Hindu
Satheesan calls for Minister's resignation citing crisis in Kerala's health sector
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The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Vacancy of senior resident doctors emerges as a concern at Kozhikode MCH
Vacancies of senior resident (SR) doctors have reportedly emerged as another concern at the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH), Kozhikode, which is already hit by the shortage of staff doctors and house surgeons. SRs are doctors who have completed their postgraduate courses, such as Doctor of Medicine (MD). Along with house surgeons – medical graduates who have completed their course and are doing their mandatory internship – and postgraduate students, they offer valuable service to the medical college hospital systems. According to reliable sources, the Department of General Medicine at the Kozhikode MCH has vacancies for seven SRs. Of the 10 posts, only three are at present working there. From the Department of Surgery, one SR has been posted in the plastic surgery section on a temporary basis. The Department of Gynaecology has two vacancies, the Department of Pulmonary Medicine has one vacancy, and the Department of Anaesthesia has three vacancies. There is a shortage of SRs in super-speciality departments as well, with the Department of Emergency Medicine reporting a vacancy of two. This is also one of the results of the transfer of SRs from here to other government medical college hospitals in Manjeri, Wayanad, and Kasaragod, ahead of the inspection by the National Medical Commission. It has also been alleged that those who have cleared MD from here are getting posted as SRs elsewhere. The sources say that this situation is putting extra pressure on final-year postgraduate students, who are also appearing for their exams now. Along with this come the arrangements in wards for admitting patients with suspected Nipah symptoms. Meanwhile, the hospital authorities' attempt to appoint non-academic junior resident doctors (NAJR) - MBBS graduates who have completed their course, but are not doing any PG course – through a walk-in interview has received a lukewarm response. The sources claim that only three or four persons attended the interview for the purpose held on July 4. The applicants are learnt to be blaming the lack of clarity on duty timings and postings in the interview notification for the poor response. The authorities tried to take in NAJRs in view of the culmination of the tenure of the 2019 batch of around 240 house surgeons. A new batch is yet to join duty. Though the Directorate of Medical Education approved the appointment of 120 NAJRs, only around 45 people appeared willing to join duty. Even among them, many postponed their joining date up to July 20, citing academic commitments.
The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
Kerala to launch antibody surveillance studies on Nipah virus
Nipah virus (NiV) has surfaced in Kerala yet again, making this the eighth appearance in as many years. Whether virus spillovers (single index case, with no secondary cases in the community), or outbreaks (spillover with subsequent cases), Kerala has primed its response to the virus, seamlessly managing early detection, limiting the transmission and successfully saving lives. However, in all these encounters with NiV, researchers have identified several missing links or knowledge gaps. These pertain to the exact virus spillover mechanism from bats ( the fruit bats of the Pteropus species are the proven natural reservoir hosts of NiV) to humans; the recurrence of the spillover events/outbreaks in a specific geographic belt in northern Kerala and how exactly human behaviour, land use and bat ecology interactions are facilitating the virus spillovers. 'We have toyed with several hypotheses regarding the spillover mechanism. Are direct spillovers possible in areas near bat colonies , such as through droplet transmission from bat secretions or poop? Can individuals be indulging in high-risk behaviours, such as consuming bat meat (evidence of NiV in internal organs of bats has been reported)?,' said T.S. Anish, a public health expert who heads the Kerala One Health Centre for Nipah Research and Resilience, Kozhikode. The possibility that NiV transmission to humans could be through fruits bitten by bats has remained conjecture at best because NiV has never been isolated in any fruit samples collected and tested during outbreak investigations in Kerala. NiV RNA has been detected in date palm sap in Bangladesh but live virus has never been isolated from any field samples. But the link between consumption of raw date palm sap in Bangladesh and human NiV infections is strongly supported by epidemiological and experimental evidence. Also, as NiV is an enveloped virus, its ability to remain infectious on a fruit in an outdoor environment is extremely fragile, said Dr. Anish Intermediate hosts? 'Our current thinking about NiV spillovers strongly leans to the fact that there is an indirect transmission route to humans, involving an indirect host. Ephrin B2, the main cell receptor used by NiV for infecting host cells is highly conserved in all mammals, which means that all animals like dogs or cattle or pigs could harbour the virus, as has been demonstrated in Malaysia and Bangladesh,' he pointed out. None of the animal samples sent so far to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal have so far turned out to be NiV positive. However, it is also a fact that NiV research is relatively nascent and that the research institutions in the country, including the National Institute of Virology, are still in the process of developing antibody markers and testing assays specific to NiV. PVNT platform Thus, while Kerala's public health response against NiV infections has been effective, the development of a novel pseudovirus neutralization test (PVNT) platform, based on a Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV) system at the State's Institute of Advanced Virology (IAV), Thonnakkal has opened up new research possibilities on Nipah. IAV has developed a novel way of generating non-infectious Nipah virus-like particles (VLPs) as well as pseudovirions in the laboratory, which mimic the wild type NiV. These engineered 'ghost viruses' carry most of the characteristics of the virus, including the NiV structural proteins G, F, and M, except their ability to replicate (because it lacks the viral genome). VLPs and pseudovirions have long been recognised as effective platforms for studying cell binding and entry kinetics of the virus. These VLPs and pseudovirions mimic viral entry but can only undergo a single round of infection and cannot replicate and reproduce infectious viruses, making them safe to handle in standard Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2) facilities. PVNT-based serological survey 'We are proposing a pseudovirus neutralisation assay-based serological survey among potential intermediate animal hosts and high-risk human populations in areas of previous NiV spillovers, with the collaboration of various stakeholders, including the departments of Health, Animal Husbandry, Forests and wildlife. The proposal is to collect healthy domestic animal blood samples (cattle, pigs, goats, dogs and cats) and human samples from within a few km radius of Nipah hotspots,' E. Sreekumar, the Director of IAV, told The Hindu. Serum samples will be tested using the IAV's VSV-based PVNT assays. The assay measures the ability of IgG antibodies in human/animal serum to neutralise these pseudovirions, thereby preventing infection of target cells. Infectivity and neutralisation, is quantified by measuring the expression of a reporter gene incorporated into the pseudovirus genome Positive PVNT results will indicate the potential of those animal species as intermediary hosts and such samples will be further tested against live Nipah virus in a BSL-4 facility with the help of NIV, Pune. This study is expected to provide robust data on NiV seroprevalence in high-risk human and animal populations in Kerala and open the doors to the mystery of NiV disease spillover and transmission pattern in the State. Futuristically, the successful validation of serological data and its integration with geo-spatial analysis will enhance Kerala's diagnostic and surveillance capabilities for NiV, it is hoped
