Tag: Kerala

Fuel prices in Kerala slashed from June 1

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amid rising criticism over steep hike in fuel prices, the Kerala government on Wednesday has decided to cut petrol and diesel prices by Rs 1 a litre from June 1.

Speaking exclusively to CNBC-TV18, Kerala Finance Minister, T M Thomas Isaac, said that cut in petrol and diesel means giving up of additional revenue by the state government.

The Minister said Kerala levies 31.8% VAT till today and there will be a reduction of 1.6% from tomorrow onwards.

29.8% is the effective VAT rate on petrol and diesel in Kerala.

Earlier today, petrol and diesel prices was revised to just 1 paisa a litre each, with state-owned oil companies blaming clerical error for previously announcing a cut of up to 60 paise.

State-owned oil companies today morning announced reduction in petrol price by 60 paise to Rs 77.83 a litre and diesel by 56 paise to Rs 68.75 in Delhi. Within hours of the announcement, they revised the cut to just 1 paisa a litre each.

Petrol in Delhi now costs Rs 78.42 per litre and diesel Rs 69.30.

The marginal reduction comes after 16 consecutive price increases since May 14 when fuel retailers ended a 19-day pre-Karnataka poll hiatus to pass on a spike in global oil rates.

In all, petrol price was increased by Rs 3.8 per litre and diesel by Rs 3.38 in that fortnight.

Prices vary from state to state depending on local sales tax or VAT. Delhi has the cheapest price among all metros and most state capitals.

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Nipah virus contained, says Kerala health secretary

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus has claimed at least 13 lives in Kerala. According to the World Health Organization Nipah was first identified in 1999, the virus can be transmitted to humans from animals and is hosted by fruit bats. Absence of a vaccine to combat this killer disease has made the task of health officials extremely difficult.

However, despite these challenges, the Kerala government claims to have successfully contained the virus. CNBC-TV18 caught up with Rajeev Sadanandan, Kerala’s health secretary to understand how the state managed to make this possible.

Watch Here: Nipah virus has been contained, says Kerala health secretary

Edited Excerpt:

Q: Do you feel absolutely confident that you have been able to now contain the spread of the deadly Nipah virus in Kerala?

A: No, I would not say we are absolutely confident. We have contained the first wave, but there is always a possibility of the contacts of the contacts, what we call the second wave, starting up. However, we are almost reaching the period within which this wave should have started up.

We have not seen signs of it, so, we are still keeping our fingers crossed. We are not calling the surveillance off, the whole missionaries is on active alert, but we are moderately hopeful that we have got out of the woods.

Q: Can you explain to us the measures that you have taken so far in order to contain the spread of the Nipah virus? Which are the agencies that you have worked with – international agencies, domestic agencies, and you said that you are not going to call the surveillance off just yet, what are the other remedial measures, precautionary measures that the state is putting in place to ensure that we do not see a repeat or in fact spread?

A: When we got notice of the case, we went back to the basics, that is we identified the index case and went about identifying all the contacts. I am happy to say that our team did such a good work that almost every case that has turned positive, figured in our contact list. That is the first thing which we did.

Then we went to the international agencies trying to find where it is that we could get help. We were lucky to get in touch with Professor Christopher Broder of Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in US. Christopher has been one of the leaders in developing the cell-line and from that the monoclonal antibody. Meanwhile we also got in touch with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Chris was able to put us in touch with the Queensland government who borrowed the cell-line from US, developed the antibody, and have stock filed the only monoclonal antibody that is believed to be an antibody to this virus. We got in touch with Queensland, Queensland said we will respond if the central government asks us.

Never before would have Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) moved so fast; we got the no objection from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), they moved the Queensland government, and we are at the final stage of getting those drugs in.

Meanwhile the WHO clinical development group has been made active again. We are working with them, the ICMR is working with them, and we are hopeful that going forward we should be able to see some active work, both on the drug development and on the vaccine development.

Going forward, what we would like to do us, we know that these bats are prevalent all across the country, and the bats carry infections below the detectable level. So, any part of India I would say is at risk. So what we will do is to identify the best persons working in this area in Asia, invite them over, do a study of our bat population and identify the infection root. We are also inviting the ICMR to join us and indications are the National Institute of Epidemiology under the ICMR would join us and together we will be able to ensure that the lessons that we learnt from this epidemic is available to us and for the rest of the country.

Q: I also want to understand about the practical reality on the ground. You talked about that surveillance system that you have put in place in order for you to be able to contain the spread of the virus. Can you explain to us because I would imagine that, that can also be important lesson for other states to follow through on, it must be a multi-thread surveillance system that you have put in place, can you explain to us how you brought about that and how it has been working on the ground?

A: Let us start before the epidemic got noticed because we know that this virus becomes active between December and May and what we will do in future is to start looking for this virus infections in future.

What happens now is, once case is identified then you do an active history taking, we look at all the contact who are there, find out how many other contacts they have had and what we did was to prepare a master list, advise our health field staff to contact each of them and advise them on house quarantine.

At one point of time we had more than 900 people who had been alerted and on house quarantine. Our field staff would call them up, visit them and find out if they are showing any symptoms. The moment they showed the symptoms, we would shift them to the facility we had identified and there they would remain under observation while we draw their blood, send it out for testing to our partner institute which is the Manipal Institute of Virology and the turnaround time was around 18 hours.

Within that time they remain there and if they are positive they are moved to the management facility, if they are not positive then they are sent home. That is the drill that we had followed and this is something we will try to refine in future if something happens again.

Q: In terms of being able to actively engage the local community to also ensure that precautionary measures are taken, I think that you have managed to do a fairly effective job this time around with the Nipah virus outbreak. Can you explain to us what specific measures were taken to engage the local community?

A: Kerala has a high level of social capital and the community generally rallies around when something like this happens. Secondly our elected representatives, we have gram panchayats and all the gram panchayats where the infections happened were very active and they ensured that the whole community was mobilised. The local MLA is one of our ministers, he was there right through the event.

The health minister was there right through the event. The media in Kerala has been very responsive, educating people on how the disease spreads, what measures to take, how not to panic. I would be very proud of the way that my whole state, the whole community, the media, the politicians, the health services, everybody pulled together to get us out of this problem.

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Monsoon rains hit Kerala coast, says Met Department

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Monsoon rains hit the southern state of Kerala a few days earlier than normal on Tuesday, the country’s weather office said, potentially brightening the nation’s outlook for agricultural output and economic growth.

Monsoons deliver about 70 percent of India’s annual rainfall and are the lifeblood of its $2.5 trillion economy, spurring farm output and boosting rural spending on items ranging from gold to cars, motorcycles and refrigerators.

“The southwest monsoon has set in over the southern state of Kerala, three days ahead of its normal date,” the state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement.

The early arrival of monsoon rains typically enables farmers to bring forward sowing of crops such as rice, sugar cane, corn, cotton and soybeans because nearly half the country’s farmland lacks irrigation.

However, IMD Monsoon Director General K.J. Ramesh last month forecast that monsoon rains were expected to be 97-percent of a long-term average.

India’s weather office defines average, or normal, rainfall as between 96 percent and 104 percent of a 50-year average of 89 cm for the entire four-month season beginning June.

Other than boosting farm output and wider economic growth, a spell of roughly average rains could help keep a lid on inflation, potentially tempting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring forward a general elections due in May 2019.

Monsoon rains are likely to be unaffected by the El Nino weather pattern, which is expected to set in only after the four-month rainy season ends in September.

In 2017, monsoon rains were 95 percent of the long-term average compared to forecasts of 98 percent.

Before receiving average rains in 2016, India suffered back-to-back drought years for only the fourth time in more than a century, hurting incomes and driving some farmers to suicide.

Average monsoon rainfall would help India retain its position as the world’s top rice exporter, but could further stoke a glut in supply of sugar.

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Exclusive: Nipah virus has been contained, says Kerala health secretary

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus has claimed at least 13 deaths in Kerala, which boasts the best healthcare system in India.  The ‘newness’ of Nipah — it was first identified in 1999, according to the World Health Organization —   and the absence of a vaccine to combat the virus that can be transmitted to humans from animals and is hosted by fruit bats make the task of health officials daunting. Despite these challenges, the Kerala government has successfully managed to contain the virus, said health secretary Rajeev Sadanandan. This has been possible largely due to the robust healthcare system in Kerala, he told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interview by email.

What is the status with regard to the containment of the Nipah virus? Media reports say the spread of the virus has been contained but the death toll continues to rise. 

We believe the epidemic has been contained. There has been only one foci, no animal infections and the first wave (persons who were infected by the original case) and we are awaiting the second wave (persons who have been infected by the persons who picked up the infection from the first case). Until now, we have not seen such a wave. But a few cases will come up until the June 4 — 16 days after the cases were picked up.

Our virus belongs to the Bangladeshi Genome, which is much for virulent than the Malaysian variety. Our death rate has been among the highest (only three survivors from 16 cases) but all of them have been detected late. The person who was detected early, Ubeesh, is doing well.

Please explain in detail how the Kerala government and your department responded to combat the virus. 

Kerala’s health response always leverages the awareness of our population and the depth of our health system. We maintained total transparency issuing periodic media bulletins and advising people who have had contact with positive cases to maintain house quarantine. This had a negative impact of ostracisation of the affected families. But it helped to prevent infection. Panchayats and elected representatives all played a very supportive role.

The media in Kerala, especially the print media, took over the task of educating the population and reassuring them. The health department prepared the list of contact cases, with the location and time of contact and assigned the field staff to visit these contacts, advise them house quarantine, and began tracking them. A Command Centre was set up with the top medical officer, Director of Health Services, being posted there permanently until the end of the episode. Data of admissions, sending of samples, results, deaths and discharges were collated and made available as daily bulletins. The cases were managed in the Kozhikode medical college. Personal protection equipment was distributed to health workers at all levels.

We contacted the best international experts in the field, including the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, WHO etc and discovered that the Queensland government had stockpiled a promising Human Monoclonal Antibody for compassionate use. Using our contacts, we contacted the Queensland government, and obtained the offer for 50 vials. Indian Council of Medical Research made the formal request to the government of Australia, the Drug Controlller General of India agreed to the use of an unpatented drug for compassionate use.

What lessons do you have to offer to the rest of the country when it comes to tackling such priority diseases? 

All of us need to have a robust surveillance system to pick up such diseases.

Did it help that Kerala has a robust healthcare system? 

We picked up the case in time and prevented its spread only because of the health system.

“Unlike other states, we are open about our epidemics. We believe that helps us manage the epidemic even though the national media goes to town on it. It is also a sign of our confidence that such bad press does not bother us too much.”

Despite the existence of a robust healthcare system and an educated class of citizens, Kerala experiences a bout of diseases such as chikungunya, dengue, malaria etc every year. Please explain this paradox.   

We have the problem of only dengue. All the other cases such as Filariasis, Malaria, TB and Leprosy are on the verge of elimination. We do have occasional cases of Leptospirosis and JE but the issue is not serious. Our problems are non-communicable diseases. Unlike other states, we are open about our epidemics. We believe that helps us manage the epidemic even though the national media goes to town on it. It is also a sign of our confidence that such bad press does not bother us too much.

What has been the impact of the Nipah virus on Kerala’s tourism economy? Media reports say there have been several cancellations of bookings for Kerala medical tourism tours. 

To a tourist, any part of the state looks the same. So there were some cancellations. We issued a travel advisory listing four districts that people were advised to avoid. This may have hurt the tour operators, but it again is part of our policy of transparency.

What are the next steps the government will undertake to combat the virus?

Kerala will work with WHO and ICMR to develop drugs against Nipah. We will also carry out, with the help of the best experts from Asia, a surveillance of the fruit bat population in the state to assess the potential for recurrence.

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India steps up hunt for origin of mysterious brain-damaging Nipah virus

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India began a fresh round of tests to trace the origin of a rare brain-damaging virus that has killed 13 people, a health official said on Monday, as initial tests on animals suspected of carrying the Nipah virus showed no sign of the disease.

All animal samples, including those from bats, cattle, goats and pigs from Kerala, sent to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, were negative for Nipah, said animal husbandry officer A. Mohandas.

The department was now collecting samples of fruit bats from Perambra, the suspected epicentre of the infection and nearby areas, Mohandas said.

Separately, tests run on dead bats in Himachal Pradesh were negative for Nipah, an official there said.

Of some 116 suspected cases sent for testing in recent weeks, 15 have been confirmed as Nipah, the Kerala government said on its website on Monday.

The latest victim was a 26-year-old rickshaw driver from Kerala’s Kozhikode district who died on the weekend, hospital officials told Reuters.

No confirmed cases of the virus have yet been found outside Kerala, despite fears it has spread. Some neighbouring states including Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka have sent samples for testing of people who reported Nipah-like symptoms in the last few days.

There is no vaccine for the virus, which is spread through body fluids and can cause encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

The usual treatment is to provide supportive care.

Infectious disease outbreaks can be a challenge in India, the world’s second most populous country, where infection control and surveillance systems are weak, leading to hundreds of deaths annually from diseases such as mosquito-borne dengue.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) said last week that Profectus BioSciences and Emergent BioSolutions would receive up to $25 million to accelerate work on a vaccine against Nipah virus.

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Nipah claims one more life in Kerala, death toll climbs to 13

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The death toll due to Nipah rose to 13 in Kerala, with one more person succumbing to the deadly virus here today. Twenty six-year-old Abin, hailing from Palazhi in the district, died at a private hospital after battling for life for one week, official sources said.

Kalyani, a septuagenarian woman who was undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College here, died yesterday. After the outbreak of Nipah at a hamlet in Perambra here last week, 16 people have tested positive, of whom 13 have died so far.

Health Minister K K Shylaja told reporters that the authorities had collected details of people who had direct contact with the deceased persons and all of them are now under observation.

However, the authorities are still clueless about the actual source of the spread of the virus. As samples of insectivores bats tested negative for the virus, the Kerala Animal Husbandry Department and the Pune based National Virology Institute (NVI) are jointly collecting samples of fruit-eating bats to be sent for expert tests. The samples would be sent for tests at the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) in Bhopal, official sources said.

Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said in Thiruvananthapuram that the government and the department would take the initiative to alleviate the concern among tourists and stakeholders following the outbreak of Nipah.

The effective steps taken by the government and the health department had helped contain further spread of the disease and the situation is under control now, he said in a meeting of the state Tourism Advisory Committee.

The outbreak of the Nipah virus infection, a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans, is suspected to be from an unused well in Perambra which was infested with bats. The natural host of the virus is believed to be fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family, Pteropus genus.

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Telangana checks suspect cases in outbreak of rare brain-damaging Nipah virus

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Officials in Telangana were checking on Friday if two people had been infected with the brain-damaging Nipah virus that has killed 12 in southern Kerala, although the government described the outbreak as minor.

Such outbreaks are a concern in a country where hundreds die from infectious diseases each year for lack of vigorous disease tracking systems. There is no vaccine for the virus, carried by fruit bats, and the only treatment is supportive care.

The virus has not spread beyond Kerala, the government said after investigation by health officials linked the initial deaths to a well colonised by bats whose water the victims had been using.

“The Nipah virus disease is not a major outbreak and is only a local occurrence,” the government said in a statement, adding that a team of experts continued to monitor the situation.

Blood samples from two men who showed the flu-like symptoms of the virus were sent for testing, said a health official in Telangana, a state neighbouring Kerala.

“We just sent them as a precaution,” said K Shankar, medical superintendent of the Sir Ronald Ross Institute of Tropical and Communicable Diseases in Hyderabad.

Two suspect cases in Karnataka, another state bordering Kerala, proved negative, said a medical official there.

All the confirmed infections have involved people who caught the virus from the first victim while he was being treated, said microbiologist G. Arun Kumar.

“Hospital-acquired infections are a major path of human to human transmission,” added Kumar, who heads the Manipal Centre for Virus Research that is testing virus samples.

The virus, spread through contact with bodily fluids, has a mortality rate of about 70 percent.

A global coalition to fight epidemics this week struck a $25-million deal with two U.S. biotech groups to speed work on a vaccine.

A clutch of dead bats discovered on the roof of a school in Himachal Pradesh triggered a brief scare, but there are no suspected human infections, said health official Sanjay Sharma.

The finding of dead bats was not an unusual event, said one state forest official.

“This is not unusual, but the department has sent bat samples for tests as a precautionary measure,” said the official, Ramesh Kang.

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US biotechs to speed work on Nipah vaccine as virus hits India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A global coalition set up a year ago to fight epidemics has struck a $25 million deal with two US biotech companies to accelerate work on a vaccine against the brain-damaging Nipah virus that has killed 12 people in India.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) said on Thursday that Profectus BioSciences and Emergent BioSolutions would receive up to $25 million to advance development and manufacturing of a shot for the bat-borne disease.

There is currently no vaccine or treatment to tackle Nipah, which has a mortality rate of around 70%.

The death toll from the latest outbreak in Kerala rose to 12 on Thursday, following the death of a 61-year-old man who had already lost three members of his family, including his two sons, to the virus.

Indian officials said they were awaiting blood test results from a further 16 patients suspected to have the infection.

The experimental vaccine being developed by the biotech companies has produced promising results in animal tests, following more than 15 years of research by scientists at the US-based Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

Based on data so far, Christopher Broder, one of the main researchers behind the project, said the Nipah vaccine in development was also “highly likely” to work against the related Hendra virus.

Experts believe both Nipah and Hendra are spread by flying foxes – bats of the genus Pteropus – with humans becoming infected by exposure to bat urine and saliva on fruit, or from infected pigs and horses. It can also spread person-to-person.

Outbreaks of Nipah occur annually in Bangladesh and 105 people died from the virus in Malaysia 1999, when more than a million pigs were slaughtered to stem its spread.

Still, Nipah remains a relatively rare tropical disease – like Ebola – which severely limits the incentive for drug companies to invest in vaccines or drugs.

It was the slow response to West Africa’s 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak, which killed more than 11,300 people before an effective vaccine was developed, that prompted the launch of the CEPI coalition in January 2017.

The group, which sees itself as a global insurance policy against epidemics, is funded by Norway, Germany, Japan, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.

Nipah is on the World Health Organization research and development priority list alongside Ebola, Zika, MERS, Lassa and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever.

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Nipah virus claims 3 lives in Kerala, 8 under observation

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Nipah virus has so far claimed three lives in Kerala while one person is undergoing treatment and 8 others are under observation in Kozhikode district, Health minister K K Shylaja today said.

The three deaths, which occurred over the past fortnight, were from the same family, including two siblings in their early twenties.

The man who is undergoing treatment for ‘Nipah’ is the father of the two brothers who died.

Nipah virus (NiV) infection is a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans.

The natural host of the virus are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family, Pteropus genus.

A bat was found in the well of their house which has now been closed, the minister said.

A nursing assistant, Lini, who had treated three infected persons, died this morning.

However, it is yet to be confirmed if she had contracted the virus, which spreads through bats.

Five more people have died due to high fever and similar symptoms of the virus here and in neighbouring Malappuram district.

However, it is yet to be confirmed if their deaths was caused by the virus, health department sources said.

Health minister Shylaja and Labour minister, T P Ramakrishnan, who hails from Kozhikode, held discussions with officials and assured that the government had taken all necessary steps to prevent the spread of the virus, which has affected the state for the first time.

A high level team from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has already arrived in Kozhikode district to take stock of the situation.

The state has been put on high alert and two control rooms have also been opened here.

The minister said there was no need to panic as the virus spreads only through direct contact with the infected person.

“We have listed the persons who have got in touch with the patients. They have been isolated as precautionary measure,” she said.

The minister said peripheral hospitals in the vicinity of Medical college have been asked to set up isolation wards and if they have patients with symptoms of the virus, they should be directed to the medical college.

NiV was first identified during an outbreak of disease that took place in Kampung Sungai Nipah in Malaysia during 1998. Then, pigs were the intermediate hosts.

However, in subsequent NiV outbreaks, there were no intermediate hosts.

In Bangladesh in 2004, humans became infected with NiV as a result of consuming date palm sap that had been contaminated by infected fruit bats.

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Kerala tourism to focus on new markets; targets 20% growth

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Last month, Kerala Tourism had reported that 2017 was its best one in the last decade.

Tourist footfalls into Kerala had increased by 10.94%, and the state welcomed a record 1.58 crore tourists from across the country and the world.

Cities such as Kochi, Kovalam and Varkala were top picks, among overseas tourists, while Guruvayur and Thiruvananthapuram doubled up as other popular spots for domestic travellers.

Focusing on Offbeat Tourist Hubs

With the Kerala government publicising plans to double the number of international tourist arrivals and increasing domestic footfalls by 50%, by 2021,  the focus is shifting towards the state’s offbeat tourist hubs.

“Destinations such as  Kochi, Munnar, Thekkady, Alappuzha, Kumarakom, Varkala and Kovalam together account for 89% of all tourist arrivals to Kerala,” said P Bala Kiran, Director, Kerala Tourism.

“The government is now keen to focus on north Kerala, in an effort to increase the region’s present 4% share of total footfalls to 25% by 2021.”

The department said an additional 25 lakh tourists are expected to make their way to destinations such as Wayanad, Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kannur, on the back of this effort.

The completion of the soon-to-be inaugurated Kannur International Airport later this year, will be a key driver in the Kerala government’s push to promote offbeat tourist getaways.

The airport will be ready by September and will cater to over a million passengers in the first year itself.

“Aside of the airport, we are also investing a total of Rs 325 crore towards a first-of-its-kind Malabar cruise, which we hope will draw footfalls to Kerala’s Malabar coast in the north,” said Kiran.

Attracting International Tourists

The game-changer, however, could come by way of new tourism source markets. At present, the Kerala government’s favourite source markets are Western Europe — the UK accounts for 1.8 lakh visitors to Kerala every year — and the Middle East.

“Footfalls from the UAE alone have grown by 40% in the last five years, even as Saudi Arabia and Oman have entered our top 10 source markets,” said Kiran. “Going forward, we hope to tap potential in new markets such as China and South East Asia.”

With this, the state government is expected to increase its revenue from tourism.

“I’m not going so bullish on revenue generation because tourist arrival does not automatically double revenue, but we are very bullish about reaching 20% (growth rate) by 2021,” said Kiran.

More importantly, the government says this push will also see an estimated 4.5 lakh jobs hit the market in the next three years, with over a lakh jobs in the next 12 months.

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