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Another piece of the puzzle of the Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala has fallen into place, with the National Institute of Virology Pune (NIV) confirming that the virus was found in bats frugivores caught in Kozhikode. Of the 51 bats Pteropus giganteus sampled by the VIN team from the epicenter of the Kozhikode epidemic, 11 had Nipah virus genetic material [19659002] Highly Described
These parts of the viral genome were detected by a test called Transverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, and were similar to 99.68% of the virus in patients, Devendra T. Mourya, director of the VIN said The Hindu . This strongly indicates that bats were carriers of the Kerala epidemic.
This is an "important but not unexpected finding," Jonathan Epstein, an epidemiologist studying the Nipah virus at the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance . ] The Hindu . But researchers still do not know how bats have transmitted the infection to humans. This information is necessary to prevent future outbreaks. In Bangladesh, which has experienced several epidemics of Nipah, patients tend to contract infection by drinking raw date palm sap. But the date palm sap is not consumed in Kerala.
The new discovery also underscores the urgent need to intensify surveillance of animal reservoirs of diseases in India, such as bats and pigs.
The NIV recently found the Nipah virus in fruit bats in West Bengal and Assam, according to a report published in March Indian Journal of Medical Research .
Expanded Surveillance
For the study, researchers sampled 107 bats from Cooch Behar and Jaipaiguri districts in West Bengal and Dhubri to Assam, all close to Bangladesh, increasing the likelihood of the virus being infected. circulates. They found nine of 107 positive samples for the virus. "This indicates that there are several Indian states with the virus, which means that we need broader surveillance in animals," said Arunkumar Govindakarnavar, a virologist who heads the Manipal Center in New Caledonia. research on the virus. 19659002] Weak viral load
But the researchers warned against killing bats in light of the results of the NIV. In the NIV surveys, the number of virus particles in bats, or viral load, was very low. This means that the possibility of an overflow for humans is extremely low.
"Even when the viral load is high, the direct transmission between bats is very rare unless you have a scenario like Bangladesh where people drink palm sap.That's why we only had one case of bat infection in Kozhikode, "said Dr. Arunkumar.
In Bangladesh, on the other hand, bat transmission to humans occurred repeatedly, in addition to person-to-person transmission. In addition, bats pollinate 50% of the forests in Africa, Asia and Europe, and without them, fruits such as durians and mangoes would not exist. "The solution is to never get rid of bats," said Dr. Epstein.
The VIN had also previously reported that the virus genome isolated from Kerala patients was similar to the Nipah strain of Bangladesh. However, this does not mean that bats or Bangladeshi travelers brought the virus to Kerala, the researchers said. "The only thing that means is that the Kerala strain is closer to the Bangladeshi strain than the Malaysian strain," said Dr. Arunkumar. In fact, the strain of Bangladesh has also been isolated from Thai bats, according to Dr. Epstein. Also, because patients without symptoms can not transmit the disease, it is highly unlikely that a Bangladeshi traveler could carry it unidentified, said Dr. Arunkumar.
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