India to buy 20 monoclonal antibody doses from Australia to treat Nipah: ICMR
Globally monoclonal antibody has been given to 14 patients infected with Nipah virus outside India and all of them have survived.
India will procure from Australia 20 more doses of monoclonal antibody for the treatment of Nipah virus infection, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director General (DG) Rajeev Bahl said on Friday (September 15).
“We got some doses of monoclonal antibody from Australia in 2018. Currently, the doses are available for only 10 patients,” he said.
According to Bahal, no one so far has been administered the medicine in India. “Twenty more doses are being procured. But the medicine needs to be given during the early stage of the infection,” he said. It can given only as compassionate-use medicine, he added.
Bahl also said mortality among the infected is very high – between 40 and 70 percent – in Nipah compared to the mortality in Covid, which was 2–3 percent. He asserted that all efforts are on to contain the spread of the virus in Kerala.
All patients are contacts of an index patient, the ICMR DG said.
On why cases keep surfacing in Kerala, Bahl said, “We do not know. In 2018, we found the outbreak in Kerala was related to bats. We are not sure how the infection passed from Bats to humans. The link couldn't be established. Again we are trying to find out this time. It always happens in the rainy season.” He said the monoclonal antibody has been given to 14 patients infected with Nipah virus outside India and all of them have survived.
“Only phase 1 trial to establish the safety of the medicine has been done outside. Efficacy trials have not been done. It can only given as compassionate-use medicine,” he said.
Globally monoclonal antibody has been given to 14 patients infected with Nipah virus outside India and all of them have survived. The decision to use the antibody, however, has to be taken by the Kerala government, besides that of doctors and families of patients.
