The Manipal Centre for Virus Research (MCVR) lab is now striving to work in Nipah-hit areas by coordinating with the medical community and the Kerala government.
 
The lab which was the first to identify the Nipah virus (NiV) in Kozhikode, Kerala was diagnosed the second patient with manifesting the symptoms fairly early.
 
We believe the virus is highly infectious and the ones at the greatest risk are the staff treating the patient in the ICU. Prone to be a bio-threat, the early detection of the virus demonstrates the country’s capabilities for containing an epidemic, said Dr. G Arunkumar, Professor and Head of the Department, Manipal Centre for Virus Research.
 
Kozhikode went on high alert followed by Tamil Nadu and parts of Karnataka after a deadly virus called NiV claimed 13 lives in Kerala. The fast-spreading virus Nipah has a mortality rate of 40-70 per cent.
 
Nipah virus infection is newly emerging disease, where animal diseases can be transmitted to people. It was first identified in Kampung Sungai Nipah, Malaysia in 1998 which involved pigs as the intermediate hosts during that outbreak. In India, the first outbreak was reported in 2001 in Siliguri, West Bengal followed by a second incident in 2007 emerging in the Nadia district of West Bengal. It was revealed by scientists that human often contracted the disease by drinking raw date palm sap tapped directly from trees, a sweet treat that fruit bats also enjoy.

WHO reports that between 1998-2008, the virus has claimed over 300 lives across Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh and India.

Sharing the details of the diagnostic tests and prevention, Dr. ArunKumar said that NiV is a risk group four pathogen. It requires a laboratory with bio safety level 3 or level 4 to be able to handle testing. Currently along with the National Institute of Virology Pune, only Manipal Centre for Virus Research, Manipal Academy of High Education are equipped to carry out testing such as Real Time PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) samples of throat swab in transport medium such as blood sample, urine sample and cerebrospinal fluid, he added.

The MCVR Lab is supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research, Department of Health Research, Ministry of Family Welfare. It is a Grade 1 virus research and diagnostic laboratory of ICMR, Government of India.