CNPRC core scientist, Dr. Koen Van Rompay was recently invited by the Indian University of Kannur to give a series of lectures. He travelled the state of Kerala hosted by local scientists and educators giving lectures focused on threatening vector borne diseases. Van Rompay took the opportunity to stress the importance of educating the public to attendees ranging from government officials, scientists, educators, and local reporters.
Van Rompay’s presentations also touched on factors like global warming, globalization, deforestation, and increased travel that are allowing new viruses to spread throughout the world. He emphasized the difference between a state on high alert and the panic that can arise from false claims or “fake news”. He observed the Indian government doing their best to raise awareness in the general public and increased vigilance in medical facilities. There is ongoing construction of an entire research facility in the capital of Kerala, Trivandrum, dedicated to studying viral diseases and creating much needed vaccines for highly affected regions. Van Rompay hopes to build collaborations between the CNPRC and the future facility to spread our knowledge and procedures to other parts of the world.
While most Americans are familiar with the vector borne disease, Zika virus, following the 2016 outbreaks, India faces their own unique threats. More recently, the state of Kerala has been experiencing outbreaks of a virus called Nipah, one of which killed 17 people. Without the incredibly efficient response of the doctors and local government, the virus could have killed a lot more. The Nipah virus has a mortality rate of ~70-% and can be transmitted through bodily fluids, like droplets expelled from a cough. Because the virus is originally transmitted by fruit bat, presumably through saliva and urine, individuals are at risk by simply harvesting fruit from trees where an infected fruit bat had been eating the night before.
Vector borne diseases are a relatively new research topic for Van Rompay. Until the Zika virus outbreak in 2016 his career was focused on developing antiviral medicines to help prevent or treat HIV/AIDS infection. With a background in Veterinary medicine he utilizes a nonhuman primate model of HIV, the Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) to provide the necessary scientific data to advance clinical trials for human patients. Similarly, the nonhuman primate model of Zika virus our researchers have developedcan advance scientific discoveries and necessary efficacy studies for new treatments that cannot be done in humans due to the nature of vector borne diseases.
