Hope On The Horizon: ICMR Confirms Nipah 'Antibodies' In Bats Found In Kerala

Nipah Virus News:  In a promising development in India's battle against the lethal Nipah infection, the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) confirmed, on Thursday, the detection of Nipah virus antibodies in bat samples gathered from Maruthonkara in the northern Kozhikode district. Antibodies refer to the protective proteins released by the immune system of a person to fight the invaders entering the body.

This region witnessed the loss of two lives to the viral infection last month. State Health Minister Veena George announced on Thursday that the ICMR had communicated this information to the state government through email.

"We have received an email from the ICMR in this regard. They informed us that the antibody was present in the bat samples collected," she informed reporters.

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The minister made this statement after touring several government hospitals in the hill district. A team from ICMR had recently visited the regions affected by Nipah in Kozhikode, collecting bat samples for examination. Last month, six individuals in the district were confirmed to have contracted the virus, with two losing their lives to the infection.

Earlier, Kerala Health Minister Veena George had said that due to effective and timely intervention by the state health system, the death rate in the fourth phase of the Nipah epidemic reduced to 33 per cent. The minister made this statement given the recovery of all four people infected with Nipah from the zoonotic disease (a disease spread from animals to humans). The government announced that a nine-year-old child in Kozhikode has recovered from a Nipah infection.

What is Nipah disease:
Derived from a Malaysian village called Sungai Nipah, this is a zoonotic disease passed from animals to humans. It can also spread through infected food, direct interaction with the infected, or contact with fruit bats. Common symptoms of Nipah are fever, headache, cough, difficulty breathing, and nausea. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the virus proves fatal for both humans and animals, also leading to severe illness in animals like pigs.