Health minister Veena George told the Assembly on Wednesday that there was no need for an "unnecessary controversy" over the declaration of Nipah outbreak in Kozhikode. The minister also refuted the charge that there was delay in confirming the presence of the deadly Nipah virus with a 70 percent mortality.
She was responding to Opposition Leader V D Satheesan's remark in the Assembly that Kerala could not make a declaration even after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya confirmed that the deaths were caused by Nipah virus.
The health minister said that three government labs in Kerala were equipped to carry out Nipah tests; at Kozhikode Medical College, Institute of Virology, Thonnakkal, and National Institute of Virology, Alappuzha.
"Problem is, none of these labs could make an official declaration of the results. This can be done only by National Institute of Virology, Pune," the minister said.
She gave a brief timeline of how the Health Department was alerted about the virus and how the Department went about confirming the presence of Nipah. "It was on September 11 morning that the Health Department received an information. The message was this: 'There has been an unnatural fever death in a private hospital (in Kozhikode)'. This fever death did not arouse any suspicion initially because the victim had other comorbidities like liver cirrhosis," the minister said.
The man had died on August 30. "It was soon revealed that the close relatives of the man had contracted fever, including his son who was shifted to the ventilator. Once this was known, the Health Department began field surveillance, collection of data and then a case study was conducted. Based on these, the samples was tested in the lab of the Kozhikode Medical College. The presence of Nipah was confirmed late in the day (September 11)," George said.
Since a declaration was not possible, the samples were flown to NIV, Pune, the very night itself. It reached Pune by around 2 pm on September 12. It takes 5-6 hours to process the sample.
"The moment I heard on television the Union Health Minister making a statement on the presence of Nipah in Kerala, I contacted NIV, Pune. 'The sample is under process' is the message we received," the minister said.
The official confirmation was received only after 8:50 pm on September 12. The information Kerala received was this: The 40-year-old man who died on September 11 was Nipah positive. The 9-year-old child of the index case, the man who died on August 30, is also positive; the child is in the ventilator. The brother of the wife of the index case was also positive.
The minister said that the government was trying to secure central sanction to make the declaration in Kerala's labs. Till then, a mobile unit of NIV, Pune will reach Kozhikode today (Wednesday). This will avoid the time lag between confirmation and declaration.
Though the health minister said a controversy was unnecessary, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made a surprise intervention right after the minister ended her clarification. It seemed as if the Chief Minister was not convinced.
"The Institute of Virology, Thonnakkal, has all the facilities. The Institute has acquired all the necessary expertise and is poised to emerge as one of the country's finest," he said. "It is actually an issue that the samples were not sent to the Institute. It will be probed," he said.
The Chief Minister said there were newspaper reports that initially it was planned to send the samples to Thonnakkal but then it was shelved. This will be examined," the Chief Minister said.
In fact, the health minister had just before made it clear that the Institute had the expertise but not the authority to make an official declaration.
