Nipah virus: ICMR permits Kerala to conduct Truenat portable tests

Strengthening the hands of the Kerala health system that is fighting to contain the spread of the Nipah virus in Kozhikode district the Indian Council for Medical Research has allowed the state to conduct Truenat tests which uses portable smart chipbased batteryoperated RTPCR kits in certain hospitalsKerala Health Minister Veena George said the permission was accorded after the state strongly demanded it during its discussions with ICMROnly hospitals having level 2 biosafety facilities where there are certain strict protocols in place to prevent contamination of samples will be permitted to use Truenat test facilitiesWith Truenat available locally only samples that test positive for Nipah need be sent to Thiruvananthapuram Thonnakkal or Kozhikode labs for reconfirmationThis will help Kerala conduct tests faster detect if there is an outbreak and set preventive measures faster she told reporters hereGeorge said that a Standard Operating Procedure SOP for the Truenat tests will be formulated soonTalking about the Nipah outbreak in Kozhikode the health minister said that there have been no positive cases reported in the past four days and the health condition of all patients under treatment remains stableThe condition of the nineyearold boy who was earlier on ventilator support is improving clinically He is responding which is a positive sign the minister saidShe said that so far 323 samples were sent for testing and 317 of them have been negativeOnly six cases were found positive Persons from the contact list of the index patient have completed their 21 days of isolation for the incubation period and they have now been removed from isolation At present there are 994 persons under isolation George saidTalking about the health monitoring mechanism at the ground level the minister said that it was the health workers who passed on the information about two persons from the same family getting admitted to a hospital to the district surveillance officerThe details of the two patients were immediately collected from the private hospital where they were admitted and samples were sent for testingWe suggested running the influenza viral panel test for them and when that turned negative we asked the samples to be tested for Nipah the minister saidWhen the samples tested positive at Kozhikode Medical College they were sent to NIV for confirmationThe minister said all this was done within hours and that it helped the state health department put the prevention protocol in placeShe said identifying the index case quickly also helped them contain the spreadEven ICMR is unable to find the answer to the question of why Nipah is recurring only in Kozhikode ICMR studies said that many states including Kerala are prone to this infection George saidShe said that in order to find the reasons the Kerala Health Department would be conducting a zerosurveillance study in the areaThe study will be conducted by checking the presence of the Nipah antibody among the people who were in highrisk contact with the patientsAccording to the findings of the ICMR the virus that caused the infection in 2018 and in 2023 are almost identical and there is no mutation in the virusHowever there are changes in the symptoms In the case of the first patient who died in the present outbreak the primary diagnosis was that of pneumonia The nineyearold boy was also first diagnosed to be suffering from communityacquired pneumonia the minister saidShe said further discussions will be held with regard to finalising the diagnosis and testing protocols for NipahPatients with acute respiratory distress syndrome and encephalitis would also be checked for Nipah This is a learning experience for us as we do not know with what all symptoms this infection manifests George saidThe patients who have tested negative and completed 21 days of isolation will be checked once again if they develop any symptoms in the next 21 daysTwentyone days is the incubation period But we also give another 21 days as a shadow period to ensure nobody is left out Veena saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever