Nipah Outbreak In Kerala: India Plans To Develop Vaccine Against The Deadly Infection
As the Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala continues to remain a matter of concern, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that it plans to start developing a vaccine against the viral disease.
There is currently no treatment or preventive vaccine against the deadly virus that has only been reported in two states in India so far in nearly two decades - West Bengal (2001, 2007) and Kerala (2018, 2019, 2021, and 2023).
Can India make a Nipah vaccine?
ICMR DG Rajeev Bahl said to start work on new vaccines, the procedure involves looking for partners who can make it and the platform it will be developed upon.
"Our biggest asset at the moment is that we have developed vaccines on diverse platforms during COVID-19, such as DNA vaccine, mRNA vaccine, adenoviral vector vaccine, protein subunit vaccine, and nasal vaccine, and we can use these diverse platforms to develop the new vaccine against disease such as Nipah infection," he said.
Is there any treatment for Nipah infection?
In the meantime, those who tested positive for the Nipah virus in Kerala's Kozhikode are being provided with symptomatic treatment.
The only other treatment that has shown some promise for Nipah virus treatment is a monoclonal antibody.
India is planning to procure 20 more doses of monoclonal antibody from Australia.
"We got some doses of monoclonal antibody from Australia in 2018. Currently, the doses are available for only 10 patients," Bahl said, adding that globally, monoclonal antibody has been given to 14 patients infected with the Nipah virus outside India, and all of them have survived.
Monoclonal antibody yet to be administered in India??
"Only phase 1 trial to establish the safety of the medicine has been done outside. Efficacy trials have not been done. It can only given as compassionate use medicine," he said.
According to him, no one so far has been administered the medicine in India.
"Twenty more doses are being procured. But the medicine needs to be given during the early stage of the infection," he said. However, the decision to use the antibody has to be of the Kerala government, besides that of doctors and patients' families.
Nipah virus infection has a very high mortality rate -- as much as 40 and 70 per cent.
Infection spread from one patient?
While fruit bats have been blamed for the 2018 outbreak in Kerala, it is still unclear why the state has seen recurring infections in 2019, 2021 and 2023.
So far, six cases have been identified in Kerala this year, out of which two have died.
According to experts, the source of the spread was one patient -- a man who died on August 30 of what was thought to be a case of multiple organ failure.
The second person who died of Nipah had come into contact with him in the hospital, and out of the four others who have so far tested positive, two are his children, and one is his brother-in-law.
The sixth person to test positive is a health worker at the hospital where the deceased patient had sought treatment.
Schools, colleges shut in Kozhikode
Meanwhile, as a containment measure, the administration in Kozhikode has announced that all educational institutes, including schools, professional colleges, and tuition centres, will remain shut for a week until next Sunday, September 24.
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