Nipah research centre to function from Kozhikode medical college in first phase

The Kerala One Health Centre for Nipah Research, being set up in Kozhikode, has been envisioned as an institution that could also play a pivotal role in preventing future outbreaks of the zoonotic disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans.

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According to official sources, the centre will be attached to the Microbiology department of the Government Medical College in the initial phase. Subsequently, it will move out to have its own building having upgraded infrastructure. The Directorate of Medical Education, Directorate of Health Services, Department of Forests and Wildlife, Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Animal Husbandry will be involved in its operations. The National Health Mission too will be part of it.

Though Health Minister Veena George was expected to open the centre on October 26, the event was postponed due to the Minister’s ill health. It is likely to be held in November. The facility was proposed in Kozhikode against the backdrop of the recurring episodes of the Nipah infection here, in 2018, 2021, and 2023. It is expected to conduct research studies on issues such as the source of the infection and the spillover mechanism of the Nipah virus from fruit-eating bats, considered to be its natural reservoirs.

Monoclonal antibodies

Meanwhile, the Health department is exploring the possibility of developing monoclonal antibodies against the virus using cells of patients who recovered from the infection. The National Institute of Virology unit at Alappuzha, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, and Institute of Advanced Virology in the State capital are involved in the research.

The centre was brought under the One Health project, conceived by the World Health Organisation as a multidisciplinary approach to prevent, predict, detect, and respond to health threats while balancing and optimising the health of people, animals, and the environment. One Health involves departments such as Health, Local Self-Government, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Wildlife and Forests, and Food Safety are involved in its execution. Earlier, only Pamba river basin districts such as Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, and Idukki were being covered under the project. The government decided to include Kozhikode too within its ambit after the Nipah outbreak here this year.