Reputed Manipal virus lab struck off ICMR list

BENGALURU: The Manipal Centre for Virus Research (MCVR) laboratory in Manipal, which received much appreciation for detecting and helping control the Nipah virus outbreak in 2018, has found itself off the list of Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) Viral Research & Diagnostic Laboratories for no fault of theirs. However, they continue to be an Influenza lab which is under the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) of India.

In the May 2018 Nipah virus diagnostics guidelines of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), MCVR was listed as a designated Nipah virus-testing laboratory in the private sector, but it is missing in the 2019 guidelines.

The lab was reportedly termed as ‘under-qualified’ by the Indian Government which had asked the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) to stop funding research in India without its approval.

The MCVR was listed among the nine labs across India which had to be upgraded for avian influenza awareness, and it was the only private lab listed under ICMR’s list for research on Influenza. The lab was the first operational ICMR grade-1 virus research and diagnostic lab.

According to media reports, the Ministry of Home Affairs has objected to the CDCP -- America’s frontline public health agency -- partnering with MCVR to carry out illness surveillance across India. The MHA had received reports that CDCP had trained MCVR to diagnose (test for) Nipah virus, a pathogen that belongs to Risk Group-4 (RG4) classification.

As per the ministry, the lab was not qualified to do so and had sent a memo to CDCP asking them to stop funding the study and comply with the rules of the Indian Government by seeking approval from the Ministry of Health and ICMR for any funding.

The Manipal institute has categorically denied all the allegations and said the Nipah virus investigation done in Kerala was funded exclusively by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the lab had followed all safety measures in handling the samples.

Dr Arunkumar of MCVR said, “We are surprised that our name is now deleted from the ICMR’s list of Viral Research & Diagnostic Laboratories. We are going to write to the Ministry of Health and ICMR to find out what went wrong. We are at no fault as all Nipah diagnostics were done with real-time information to ICMR and NCDC of Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, with daily email reports,” he explained.

“The Institute used Polymerase chain reaction tests in inactivated samples for diagnosing Nipah and samples were transferred to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, for virus isolation at their Bio-Safety Level-4 ( BSL-4) facility. All clinical samples from Nipah cases have been transferred to NIV, Pune, in July 2018 itself. We have taken due diligence in biosafety and biosecurity of the Nipah sample handling. We dismiss the allegations,” he said.

The RG4 viruses are considered lethal and their handling is strictly controlled since they can be turned into biological weapons. Hence, it requires labs that have biological safety level-4 (BSL4) certification to study it. The Home ministry’s contention was that the MCVR does not meet the criteria.

However, MCVR said, “We did only molecular diagnostics for Nipah in inactivated samples as per WHO’s Ebola protocol. We were asked to stop the tests and send all the samples to Pune on July 07, 2018 which was complied immediately and ever since, we don’t have any samples here. Everything was done under the ICMR’s scrutiny only,” Dr Arunkumar explained.

Striking MCVR off ICMR’s list of VRDLs has sparked a debate on the social media amongst the medical fraternity with several of them criticising the government for stopping the funds. Arvind Kumar, a post-doctoral Research Scientist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, said, “Great work is done by this centre — rapid detection of virus and well-planned strategies. Instead of application, break on funding doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Another researcher Anant Bhan said, “It is important to remember that this is the same lab which did admirable work with the Kerala government. Why is it that they are suddenly being blacklisted for this project? Knee-jerk reaction?” he questioned.