Nipah outbreak in Kerala | Public not warned about probability of recurrence of the disease

As the State encounters Nipah for the fourth time in five years, the reigning question is that why the State, which has been efficient in curtailing the spread of the virus three times, has not been able to come up with a proper mechanism to prevent it; more importantly, why the public has not been warned about the probability of the recurrence of the disease before the breeding season of the Pteropus medius species of bats from June to September

Nipah outbreak | Connection between environment and epidemic in focus

Fingers have been pointed at the departments of Health, Animal Husbandry as well as Forest for not conducting follow-up studies once a strain of the zoonotic infection is under control. Instead, the focus of the State is only on curtailing the spread once the outbreak is confirmed. This issue was pointed out by the media after the outbreak in 2021. However, no efforts have been made by the departments to find out the pattern of infection or warn the public accordingly.

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Nipah was reported in Kozhikode for the first time in May 2018 and the second time in September 2021. The third occurrence in September 2023 cannot be discounted as accidental. Despite warnings from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) that there could be a recurrence of Nipah annually, the State failed to foresee the need to make any arrangements to detect it at an early stage or to isolate suspected cases.

So far, very few studies have been conducted on Nipah in the district. A team from the National Institute of Virology, Pune, had tested samples from a few bats at Perambra in 2018 soon after Nipah was confirmed for the first time. They had identified the presence of Nipah virus in the samples. Testing samples from Ernakulam in 2019 also earned similar results. Another team from ICMR visited rural Kozhikode earlier this year for an inspection. But there has been no reliable study on fruit eating bats and their capacity to cause an outbreak.

While experts highlight the need to keep track of bats during their breeding season by testing samples periodically as well as to create awareness among farmers on defence against Nipah, senior officials in the district are maintaining a studied silence.