Pune Institute Sends Mobile Laboratory To Kerala For Early Nipah Detection

A team of experts from the Department of Animal Husbandry has also been deployed to assist the state in the surveillance of animals, official sources told PTI. Apparently, samples will be collected from bats to check for the presence of the Nipah virus.

The ICMR's National Institute of Virology in Pune on Thursday sent its mobile BSL-3 laboratory to Kozhikode in Kerala to test samples for Nipah virus in the district itself after five cases, including two deaths, were reported there.

A team of experts from the Department of Animal Husbandry has also been deployed to assist the state in the surveillance of animals, official sources told PTI. Apparently, samples will be collected from bats to check for the presence of the Nipah virus.

The brain-damaging virus has killed two people and infected three others in Kozhikode district so far. On Wednesday, a 24-year-old health worker became Kerala's fifth confirmed Nipah case since its recent outbreak.