By Kevin Bratcher
NEW YORK CITY- One New York City researcher is using federal stimulus dollars to battle the Nipah virus- a lethal bug in the same family as measles.
Dr. Kevin J. Olival, a Senior Research Fellow working with Wildlife Trust, has traveled the world to study the seasonal outbreak of the Nipah virus and coordinate research. Government stimulus funding has provided a needed boost to make his work possible.
“We’re looking at the ecology of the Nipah virus,” Olival said, “We’re in the process of testing samples we’ve collected now from [Bangladesh].”
Outbreaks in Bangladesh and India since 2002 have resulted in over 100 deaths. While each outbreak is limited in exposure, the mortality rate is between 69% and 92%, making it one of the more deadly viral outbreaks today.
Dr. Olival outlined the dangers of the Nipah virus, “It’s an encephalitic virus, so it affects your brain. People generally within a week or so will get infected and often go into a coma.”
The money allocated for Wildlife Trust Inc. comes from a larger grant of more than $86.1 billion given the Department of Health and Human Resources, for the purpose of stimulating the economy and creating jobs. The grants given to Wildlife Trust represent vital supplements along with other funding it has received.
The first grant of $51,225 upgraded technology both at the home office in New York City and at the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research in Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). One of the key upgrades involved providing the research center in Bangladesh with a T1 line, as local telephone lines are not reliable enough for the level of communication necessary between the two research centers..
Videoconferencing technology has also been installed and will connect scientists in New York with scientists across the world in Bangladesh to ensure faster communication. With these technological improvements, Wildlife Trust hopes to speed up the process of finding a way to deal with the virus.
The second grant for $204,688 is to research, map and hopefully contain the virus. Dr. Olival has made multiple trips to Bangladesh over the last nine months to arrange research and train local veterinarians, doctors and field technicians.
The money has also been used to provide one job- specifically for Dr. Olival, who was hired by Wildlife Trust Inc. after they received funding last year.
Dr. Olival has a Ph.D. from Columbia University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. His recent work includes three years as a research associate for Dr. Michael Hadfield at the University of Hawaii studying population biology for endangered Hawaiian tree snails.
Further grant spending will cover the testing of the many samples being gathered in Bangladesh, as well as real-time videoconferencing between scientists here and those in Bangladesh.
The project is currently focused on placing GPS collars on a particular species of fruit bats known as the “flying fox”, which is known to carry the virus. Wildlife Trust hopes through their research to determine the flight patterns and living areas of the fruit bats, and to determine how the virus infects humans.
Fruit which has been bitten by the bats is the most common way in which people are infected, however, and Dr. Olival’s research is also studying the local fruits to find where the bats most commonly feed.
While the virus has only rarely been transmitted between humans, it has occurred, making outbreaks all the more important to contain when they occur.
Through government grants and grants from other science foundations, Wildlife Trust hopes to achieve significant results in the next five years to combat this virus. It is hoped that through their research another life-threatening virus may be contained.
Dr. Olival sounded optimistic as well. “It’s a 2-year grant we have, and then we have other funding which will go for a few more years,” Olival said, “so we’re expecting to be working in Bangladesh for awhile, if all goes as planned and we can keep securing funding to do work there.”
Full Podcast Interview With Dr. Kevin Olival
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