India to procure 20 more doses of monoclonal antibody

Health workers and security personnel control entry at an emergency ward at the medical college in Kozhikode on Friday. Pic/PTI

India will procure from Australia 20 more doses of monoclonal antibody for the treatment of Nipah virus infection, ICMR DG Rajeev Bahl said on Friday. "We got some doses of monoclonal antibody from Australia in 2018. Currently the doses are available for only 10 patients," he said. According to him, no one so far has been administered the medicine in India. "Twenty more doses are being procured. But the medicine needs to be given during the early stage of the infection," he said, adding it can only given as compassionate use medicine. Bahl also said mortality among the infected is very high in Nipah (between 40 and 70 per cent) in Nipah compared to the mortality in COVID, which was 2-3 per cent.

He asserted that all efforts are on to contain the spread of the virus in Kerala. All patients are contacts of an index patient, he said. On why cases keep surfacing in Kerala, Bahl said, "We do not know. In 2018, we found the outbreak in Kerala was related to bats. We are not sure how the infection passed from Bats to humans. The link couldn't be established. Again we are trying to find out this time. It always happens in the rainy season." He said monoclonal antibody has been given to 14 patients infected with Nipah virus outside India and all of them have survived.

Also read: Covid-19: Maharashtra reports 41 new cases

"Only phase 1 trial to establish the safety of the medicine has been done outside. Efficacy trials have not been done. It can only given as compassionate use medicine," he said. A 39-year-old man tested positive for the Nipah virus, which was transmitted to him through direct contact with an infected person who died on August 30, Kerala Health Minister Veena George said on Friday. With the active cases rising to four, the state government has decided to test everyone on the high-risk contact list of infected persons.

6
No of people infected with the Nipah virus

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