Wednesday, August 01, 2018

Kudos to Kerala on Efficient Handling of the Nipah Virus Outbreak


Visit Nipah virus: Anatomy of an outbreak a report in the Hindu newspaper.

Kozhikode: Kozhikode and Malappuram districts, where 17 people died of Nipah in May, were declared free of the virus by the Kerala government in July 2018. "A decision to declare both districts as Nipah-virus-free was taken by the government as no fresh cases have been reported after June 1," health minister K.K. Shylaja said. 
She was speaking at an event to felicitate medical teams, support staff and volunteers who fought against the spread of the virus.
Sajeesh, husband of 28-year-old nurse Lini Puthuserry who died after contracting the virus while attending to patients at Perumbra Taluk Hospital, was among those honoured.
The Collectors of Kozhikode and Malapurram districts, U.V. Jose and Amit Kumar Meena, and Manipal Virology Institute director G. Arunkumar were also honoured. Dr A.S. Anoop Kumar of the Kozhikode-based Baby Memorial Hospital was presented with a special award for his efforts to identify and prevent the virus outbreak.
The government had on June 11 lifted the travel advisory it had issued in the wake of the virus and said it was safe to travel to any part of the state.
It is heartening to see how they have managed the crisis efficiently. It is frightening to think of what could have happened if the outbreak had happened in a place where healthcare is not as efficient as it seems to have been in Kerala.
The speed with which Kozhikode’s Baby Memorial Hospital seems to have ruled out alternative hypotheses and suspected Nipah infection is impressive. The availability of a very competent critical care doctor and an equally competent neurologist there to handle the first set of Nipah victims speaks highly of the state of health care in Kerala. 
Credit for the second impressive feat belongs to a private institution in Karnataka – which has been operating the Manipal Centre for Virus Research (MCVR) - and to Dr Arunkumar, Prof and Head of the Department at MCVR. In 2017 MCVR had sent a team to the US Centre for Disease control. One of the actions taken was training some members of the visiting team for testing samples to identify the presence or absence of the Nipah infection. This test can be currently done only at two places in India: National Institute of Virology, Pune and MCVR. 
The Kerala hospital sent samples to MCVR, 300 KM away, for quick identification of the virus involved. MCVR under the Manipal University has also been supported by the Govt of India. This public-private partnership in the critical area of public health shows what can be done in India when dedicated leadership is available.

India as well as the World Health Organization have done the right thing by honouring Lini Puthussery a dedicated healthcare professional who died after taking care of Nipah victims. We need to recognize that the professionals and other staff who work in public health are some of the most valuable people in India. It is necessary to institute annual awards to honour these committed workers.  We must also identify hospitals that maintain readiness to deal with public health emergencies.  

Srinivasan Ramani  


References

1) Nipah virus: Anatomy of an outbreak, Priyanka Pulla, JUNE 02,   
     
2018 00:15 IST, UPDATED: JUNE 02, 2018 12:38 IST

2) WHO pays tribute to Kerala nurse who died of Nipah, PTI,
      Jun 05, 2018, 05.12 PM IST