The other Kerala story: viruses

Brut India

The new Covid variant, Nipah, Zika… what makes Kerala susceptible to viruses and how does the state fight them?

Transcript

00:00The JN1 COVID sub-variant, COVID-19, Japanese encephalitis,

00:05chikungunya, acute encephalitis syndrome, West Nile encephalitis,

00:09viral hepatitis, Nipah, swine flu.

00:12These were all first reported in Kerala, before any other state in India.

00:17In fact, research suggests that at least 10 viral and non-viral disease outbreaks

00:22happened in God's Own Country in the recent past.

00:25Monkeypulse case has been reported in Kerala.

00:27But, the state recording a large number of outbreaks is not exactly a bad thing.

00:33There are multiple reasons for this, like the state's robust health management system.

00:38Kerala does rigorous testing on people entering the state from both airports and seaports,

00:44and because of the state's high literacy rate, the population is also very aware.

00:47Reports show that ASHA workers and women's self-help groups aid this awareness,

00:52even in remote villages, and play an important role in the early detection of diseases.

00:57This selfless cooperation of our general public has played a major role in keeping Kerala safe thus far.

01:06In fact, the first person detected with monkeypox in Kerala had actually volunteered to be tested,

01:12after he found out that he had been in contact with someone who tested positive in the UAE.

01:17Epidemiologists suggest that the state's active surveillance system,

01:21capacity-building exercises for healthcare workers,

01:24community engagement and strategic interventions not only helped detect the viruses,

01:29but also kept the outbreaks in check.

01:31This surveillance system was actually adopted from a system that the state used

01:36for disease surveillance in the private sector during the floods of 2018.

01:40From starting contact tracing to isolation and treatment, everything we had done in a systematic manner.

01:48But, what is it about the southern state that often makes it the first to record diseases?

01:53We have to take into account the state's geography, topography and demography.

01:58Kerala has a high population density of both humans and animals.

02:02It has massive forest cover and intense monsoons, which makes it susceptible to outbreaks.

02:08Our expansion into the western ghats also led to the depletion of forests

02:12and destroyed habitats of animals like bats, monkeys, civet cats, all common disease vectors.

02:18These animals then travelled to areas inhabited by people in search of food and shelter,

02:23which might have led to the spread of infections and zoonotic diseases.

02:27These are basically diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans or the other way around.

02:31For example, leptospirosis was the most fatal zoonotic disease in the state,

02:35which killed 290 people in 2022 alone.

02:39This was followed by scruptitis, which claimed 24 lives.

02:42Kerala also has a large diaspora with people spread across the globe.

02:46A lot of these people are medical students, doctors and nurses.

02:50They may be more exposed to bacteria and viruses,

02:53which they might unknowingly bring back to the country when they return.

02:56In fact, Kerala's handling of COVID-19 in the first few months earned high praise

03:02from Neeti Aayog, Nobel laureate and economist Amartya Sen,

03:06philosopher and critic Neom Chomsky and the WHO chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan.

03:12But what really worked for Kerala is the fact that the state learned.

03:17It learned from the Nipah outbreak in Siliguri in 2001

03:21and then later in the district's neighbouring Bangladesh in 2007

03:24to tackle the outbreak in their own state in 2018.

03:27The state also took initiative and learned from countries where these diseases were endemic.

03:31For instance, a professor of virology at NIMHANS said that Kerala followed protocols

03:36established in sub-Saharan Africa to fight Ebola.

03:40And finally, the state also has an outpost of the National Institute of Virology,

03:44which can aid the state government as well as a strong

03:47virology department at the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology.

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