Kozhikode: The Nipah outbreak in Kozhikode may not have originated from fruit bats as suspected, tests on the captured creatures have shown. As many as 13 samples collected from the blood, serum and droppings of bats tested negative for the deadly virus in analyses conducted at the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal.
The samples were collected from Janakikkadu near Changaroth at Perambra, where the Nipah virus claimed three lives in a family. Insect-eating bats caught from the well of the house had earlier tested negative for the virus. Even the cows, goats and pigs in the area showed no symptom of Nipah.
The health authorities possess no evidence to suggest that the virus was transmitted by bats. Nipah was first reported in India in Bengal’s Siliguri. No study was conducted to see if the birds and animals in the area were infected, studies by the World Health Organisation and Pune’s National Institute of Virology showed.
Since Nipah was also reported from Bangladesh, local authorities in Siliguri suspected that someone carried the virus from the neighbouring country.
Though no effective vaccine has been discovered to prevent Nipah infection, Ribavirin seems to be useful in containing shivering and vomiting, the WHO said.
Antibodies from Australia
The latest finding comes even as the government is making all efforts to prevent a second wave of the infection.
A list of 1,950 people, who had come in contact with confirmed Nipah Virus (NiV) cases, has been prepared and they are being closely monitored, health minister KK Shylaja said.
On Saturday morning, the death of a 39-year-old woman, Roja, who showed symptoms of the virus, gave a scare. But, her blood samples were found to be negative, she said, stressing the need to remain extremely vigilant even though there were no fresh cases.
The monoclonal antibodies from Australia had reached the state and was on its way to Kozhikode medical college from Kochi. It will be administered only if there was any fresh Nipah cases.
Experts from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) -- the apex body in the country for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research -- will be reaching here on Monday and the antibody would be administered only if it was necessary. With the help of ICMR and the World Health Organisation (WHO), the state government had procured about 50 doses of a monoclonal antibodies from Australia to combat the virus.
The ICMR had written to the Queensland government in Australia asking it to provide the antibody developed there to test if it can neutralise the virus in humans.
The natural host of the virus is believed to be fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family, Pteropus genus.
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