The Kerala One Health Centre for Nipah Research will be developed to take up pioneering research that will serve as a model for the world, Health Minister Veena George has said.
She was at the Government Medical College here on Wednesday evening to open the centre and declare Kozhikode as free from Nipah infection.
Ms. George said that with Kerala successfully battling recurring cases of the infection, it had unique experiences in containment steps. The centre would focus on unearthing how the virus transmitted from fruit-eating bats, its natural reservoirs, to human beings. It would be able to take up community surveillance steps in Kozhikode and Wayanad districts, where the presence of antibodies against the virus had been detected.
“Right now, the centre will function from the premises of the medical college. Later, new infrastructure will be brought, and it will become an independent institution. The data collected at the centre will be shared with other departments such as Forests and Wildlife, Animal Husbandry, and Local Self-Governments,” she said. Ms. George said the centre would also have a section to create awareness about how the State successfully contained Nipah outbreaks in 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2023.
The Minister said the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Institute of Advanced Virology, Kerala, both in Thiruvananthapuram, and the National Institute of Virology unit in Alappuzha had begun work on developing monoclonal antibodies against Nipah virus.
