Rapidly deployable mobile BSL-3 laboratory: A Response to Nipah virus outbreak in Kozhikode Kerala, India 2023

The Nipah virus (NiV) outbreak was declared in Kozhikode district, Kerala state, India on September 12, 2023. The local, state, and national authorities worked in an integrated way to tackle and control the outbreak. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) deployed a team from ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, India along with an indigenously developed and validated Mobile BSL-3 (MBSL-3) laboratory for providing onsite NiV diagnosis. The Kozhikode district of Kerala state has been an epicenter of three NiV outbreaks in May 2018, August 2021, and recently in September 2023. The Ernakulam district, Kerala also reported NiV outbreak in June 2019. In the 2023 outbreak, six confirmed NiV cases were detected with two deaths. During previous outbreaks in 2019 and 2021, the team from ICMR-NIV, Pune had successfully established the field laboratory utilizing the BSL-2 facility for NiV onsite diagnosis. The BSL-3 personnel protective equipment and standard operative procedures were used to handle the clinical specimens. Post COVID-19 pandemic, under the pioneering initiative of the Government of India, ICMR and Klenzaids Contamination Control Pvt Ltd, Mumbai developed a rapidly deployable, pragmatic, access control and containment laboratory on bus chassis. This MBSL-3 laboratory was utilized for the NiV onsite diagnosis for early containment of outbreak reducing the turnaround time to diagnosis to just 4 hours. MBSL-3 laboratory played a significant role in NiV outbreak response and could be utilized in the future also reaching the remotest areas of the country.