International project to enhance surveillance for diseases in Kerala

THRISSUR: At a time when Nipah has resurfaced in Kerala, an international research project to enhance the capacity for surveillance for viruses causing such diseases among the people and animals in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh is about to take off.

The project is being jointly undertaken by the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU), King George Medical University, Lucknow, under the global leadership of the Eco Health Alliance, an NGO based in New York. US government’s Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has agreed to fund it through Eco Health Alliance. Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) and the state’s health and forest departments are also expected to collaborate in the project.

The project aims to test the hypothesis that Henipaviruses (which causes Nipah virus disease) and other Filoviruses (which causes Ebola and similar ailments) are circulating in bats associated with humans and livestock in rural India and that their unrecognised spill over into domestic animals and people has already taken place, according to Dr Prejit, officerin-charge of Centre for One Health, Education, Advocacy, Research and Training (COHEART) of KVASU.

The project will seek to identify wildlife hosts for Henipaviruses and Filoviruses and characterise the prevalence within those hosts. Researchers will also conduct targeted bio-surveillance in wildlife, livestock and humans to determine the exposure rates and detect spillover of these high consequence viruses, Dr Prejit said.

The project is for three to five years, and the findings of the study would generate knowledge to establish an enhanced ‘One Health’ surveillance for known and unknown Henipaviruses and Filoviruses in human and animal populations in India, which is considered as an emerging disease hotspot, said Prof M R Saseendranath, vicechancellor of KVASU.

The research will involve wild animals like monkeys and bats, domestic animals like pigs and human subjects. During the research, scientists will collect samples from animals and human patients and non-patients from the same areas to test the presence of antibodies in the samples. The entire testing will be done in the country, and no samples will be sent abroad, said Dr Amitha Jain, KGMU.

Diseases like Nipah, Ebola, and to some extent, Covid have alerted the medical community to their zoonotic dimensions as they are suspected to be transmitted from animals to humans. These diseases have highlighted the importance of comprehensive surveillance under the overarching principles of ‘One Health’ where coordinated actions between animal and public health authorities are needed, said Mohanan Kunnummal, VC of the KUHS.

According to Dr Prejit, this could probably be India’s first of its kind project that truly follows ‘One Health’ principles. Dr Jain said the project can take off only after approval from the authorities of various departments. “We hope to start the project by early next year,” she said.