Kerala establishes a Nipah testing lab, but samples must still be sent to NIV Pune

One day after the state reported a Nipah virus infection case, a laboratory for testing Nipah virus samples was established at the Kozhikode Medical College in Kerala. On September 7, Health Minister Veena George announced the opening of the lab after a 12-year-old boy in Kozhikode died of Nipah virus infection. By Monday evening, the facility had been set up. While the state has a unit of the National Institute of Virology, Pune in Alappuzha and the Institute of Advanced Virology (IAV) in Thiruvananthapuram, it lacks a lab to test Nipah samples.

Five samples have been sent to the Kozhikode Medical College lab for Nipah virus testing. It was established in collaboration with NIV Pune and its Alappuzha centre. The testing is carried out in collaboration by the staff of NIV Pune, NIV Alappuzha, and Kozhikode Medical College. According to Health Minister Veena George, the lab will perform RT-PCR tests as well as point-of-care testing (testing done close to patients) for the Nipah virus. While the samples can be tested at the medical college lab, they must be sent to the NIV in Pune for confirmation. According to the Health Minister, this process can take up to 12 hours.

Testing kits and reagents (a substance used in chemical analysis or other reactions) were sent to the Kozhikode lab on an emergency basis from NIV Pune and its Alappuzha centre.