Nipah: India to procure 20 doses of monoclonal antibody from Australia

New Delhi: India will procure from Australia 20 more doses of monoclonal antibody for the treatment of Nipah virus infection, ICMR DG Rajeev Bahl said on Friday.

“We got some doses of monoclonal antibody from Australia in 2018. Currently the doses are available for only 10 patients,” 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, adding it can only given as compassionate use medicine.

Bahl also said mortality among the infected is very high in Nipah (between 40 and 70 per cent) in Nipah compared to the mortality in Covid, which was 2-3 per cent.

He asserted that all efforts are on to contain the spread of the virus in Kerala.

All patients are contact of an index patient, he said.

On why cases keep surfacing in Kerala, Bahl said, “We do not know. In 2018, we found the outbreak in Kerala was related to bats. We are not sure how the infection passed from Bats to humans. The link couldn’t be established. Again we are trying to find out this time. It always happens in the rainy season.”

He said monoclonal antibody has been given to 14 patients infected with Nipah virus outside India and all of them have survived.

“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.

Globally monoclonal antibody have been given to 14 patients infected with NipahVirus outside India and all of them have survived.

The decision to use the antibody, however, has to be of the Kerala government’s, besides that of doctors and also families of patients.

Meanwhile, a 39-year-old man tested positive for the Nipah virus, which was transmitted to him through direct contact with an infected person who died on August 30.

With the number of active cases rising to four, the state government has decided to test everyone who are on the high-risk contact list of the infected persons.

State Health Minister Veena George said that the man was confirmed with the Nipah virus after his samples turned positive, taking the total infected in the state to six, of which two had died earlier.

The minister’s office today said that the person found infected had sought treatment at a private hospital where Nipah-infected persons were treated for other ailments earlier. A high-level meeting was held at the Kozhikode Collectorate here today to take stock of the situation.

Besides George, Ministers P A Mohammed Riyas, Ahamed Devarkovil and A K Saseendran took part in the meeting.

Briefing the media after the meeting, George said the health conditions of those affected, including the nine-year-old boy on ventilator support, were stable.

It is suspected that the patients under treatment were infected with the virus from a person who died on August 30, she said.