Thiruvananthapuram: “The medicine for treating Nipah patients will arrive in Kozhikode by evening,” Kerala Health Minister Veena George informed the assembly on Wednesday.
"The medicine will reach Kozhikode by evening. We are coordinating with the ICMR for this," she said.
The move comes in the wake of Nipah infection being confirmed in four persons in Kozhikode district of the state.
The Minister added that the disease spread from the first victim and that a route map of the patient will be released soon.
Meanwhile, the minister informed the assembly that an expert team from National Institute of Virology in Pune will establish a mobile laboratory in the state.
“Teams from National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune would arrive in Kerala during the day to set up a mobile lab at Kozhikode Medical College to test for Nipah and carry out survey of bats,” she said.
"Though the means to confirm Nipah is available in Kozhikode and Thonnakkal, the official confirmation must come from NIV, Pune," she added.
Responding to a query regarding the Nipah infection in the assembly, George said that the virus strain seen in Kerala was the Bangladesh variant that spreads from human to human and has a high mortality rate, though it is less infectious.
George further said that besides the teams from NIV, Pune, a group of epidemiologists would reach Kerala today from Chennai to carry out a survey.
Additionally, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has agreed to fly down the monoclonal antibodies that are required to treat Nipah patients, she told the House.
The minister was responding to a query by CPI MLA P Balachandran during the Question-Answer hour regarding the measures taken to deal with the Nipah virus which has killed two and infected two others in Kozhikode.
George said surveillance, contact tracing, categorising them into low and high risk, setting up isolation facilities for them, demarcating containment zones and procuring medicines from ICMR for those infected, were some of the numerous steps taken by the Health department to prevent spread of the brain damaging virus.
Seven village panchayats -- Atanchery, Maruthonkara, Tiruvallur, Kuttiyadi, Kayakkodi, Villyapalli, and Kavilumpara -- in Kerala's Kozhikode district have been declared as containment zones.
Soon after the Nipah virus infection was confirmed in Kozhikode district on Tuesday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had urged people not to panic and to take precaution instead.
The Kerala government has strengthened measures to prevent the spread of Nipah infection after the brain-damaging virus killed two people and infected two others in this north Kerala district.
Considering the serious nature of the disease, the Kozhikode administration declared seven village panchayats as containment zones.
(With PTI inputs.)
