Following the confirmation of Nipah virus infections in five individuals, including a doctor, in West Bengal, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has dispatched an advanced mobile testing van from the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune to the state for testing patient samples.

This Biosafety Level (BSL) 3 facility, which was also utilised during the Covid-19 pandemic, will be stationed at Beleghata ID Hospital, according to Dr Santa Sabuj Das, Director, National Institute for Research in Bacterial Infections (Nirbi).

“A mobile van has been sent, as we all know it is a highly infectious disease with high mortality. So it requires a very special precaution for handling clinical samples. The ICMR BSL-3 van will be deployed to various locations as needed. The vehicle has been sent from NIV Pune on Wednesday,” Dr Das said.

According to the latest reports, a doctor, a nurse, and a healthcare staff member have been infected with the Nipah virus — a highly fatal zoonotic infection, with fruit bats as the natural reservoir and pigs as hosts — in West Bengal. This brings the total number of active cases in West Bengal to five.

According to Dr Das, this mobile laboratory will handle the initial processing of samples and will decontaminate them before they are sent for RT-PCR testing. Currently, the team consists of six specialists from NIV Pune and nine from Nirbi, in addition to staff from two labs at SSKM and RG Kar Medical College hospitals in Kolkata, each equipped with three to four specialists to conduct the tests.