Nipah Virus (NiV), whose presence has been confirmed behind the spread of the ‘mysterious fever’ being reported in Kozhikodu district in Kerala might have come to the place through the migratory fruits-eating bats from Indonesia, according to an eminent clinical virologist Dr Jacob John.

He said this is the second time the presence of this rare kind of virus is found in India. In 1992, the same kind of virus had come to West Bengal and Bangladesh through fruits-eating bats and the virus transmitted to many humans. In the districts of Siliguri and Burdwan in West Bengal, the presence of Nipah Virus was found at that time.
 
A scientific test at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune has confirmed a positive report about the presence of the rare Nipah Virus. The report confirms that the virus NiV has caused the death of several patients admitted in hospitals.

According to Dr Jacob John, the spread of disease could be due to this rare virus which raises concern among virologists and health experts.

“No particular vaccine or treatment has been found to contain the infection, but only the solution is ‘isolation of patients’.  More chances are there to infect the doctors and nurses. So the patients need to be kept in isolated wards. From an affected patient the particular virus can transmit to humans,” he told Pharmabiz.

Referring to the cases in Kerala, Dr Jacob John, who has recently retired as the HoD of Clinical Virology at the Christian Medical College, Vellore in Tamil Nadu, said although the test report has come from National Virology Institute at Pune, the same test has to be conducted in some other institutes also for re-confirmation. However, he did not rule out the authenticity of the first report.

According to him, precaution is the only way to avoid getting sick with infection.

Dr Jacob John was the adviser to government of Kerala for establishing the State Institute of Virology and Infectious Diseases in Alapuzha district in 1998. But the Institute was a failure as it could not rise up to the level of a research institute due to lack of governmental support. He claimed that had the institute progressed well it could have been able to contain any kind of spread of infection caused by viruses.
 
Government of Kerala is now gearing up to bring up one virology institute at Thiruvananthapuram and Dr Jacob John has been appointed as its chairman.

Meanwhile, a team of scientists and doctors was sent to Kozhikodu by the Union health minister J P Nadda. The director of National Centre for Disease Control is also visiting the state.