Did expired antivirals kill Nipah patients in Kerala? Govt's claim, Left's counter
A fresh political face-off has erupted in Kerala over the United Democratic Front (UDF) government ordering a probe into Nipah treatment protocols followed by the Government Medical College Kozhikode during the previous Left Front reign.
Health minister K. Muraleedharan told the legislative assembly on October 29 that his department had ordered a high-level inquiry into the Nipah virus deaths in the state between 2023 and 2025, and that a medical board would be constituted to scrutinise the treatment protocol followed. Muraleedharan was responding to a submission made by Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan.
Muraleedharan said it was suspected that the Government Medical College Kozhikode had administered expired doses of the antiviral drug Remdesivir to patients. According to him, the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd, a government agency, had procured 3,000 vials of Remdesivir for Rs 42 lakh in June 2021. The vials had an expiry date of May 30, 2023.
According to the government, the Kozhikode Medical College administered the antiviral vials to Nipah patients in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Six persons died, and that stock and usage data records revealed 102 expired vials were used in 2023-24, 34 in 2024-25 and 10 in 2025-26.
Kerala has reported Nipah outbreaks in 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Twenty-two lives have been lost. During the Left Democratic Front (LDF) rule, the state had won praise from the medical community and public for its management of Nipah virus infections. Now, the Congress-led new government’s claims about expired drugs put a question mark on those efforts.The health minister’s dramatic announcement in the assembly was met with a challenge from the Opposition. Speaking to INDIA TODAY, Veena George, who was health minister during LDF rule, stated: “K. Muraleedharan misrepresented data to trigger a political controversy to cover up his failures as health minister. All treatment details of patients admitted with Nipah infection are recorded and available for public scrutiny. Before administering Nipah antivirals to patients, a medical board is constituted with an expert panel. None of the patients who received Remdesivir died during 2023-25 at the Kozhikode Medical College.”
Medical experts too expressed shock over Muraleedharan’s claims. Dr A.S. Anoop Kumar, medical director at the Aster North Kerala Cluster for Critical Care, Kozhikode, said the six Nipah patients who died in 2023-25 never received Remdesivir at the Government Medical College Kozhikode.
“They were admitted to the Medical College Hospital in serious condition and could not be administered the antiviral. However, seven Nipah patients who received Remdesivir recovered. The data and treatment protocols followed can be verified. This is a controversy to put public hospitals under suspicion,” Dr Kumar told INDIA TODAY.
Kerala confirmed one Nipah virus case this year in June. The UDF government procured 50 vials of Remdesivir from Bahrain on June 12.
Recently, the health department landed in another row after the Sree Avittom Thirunal Hospital, a public medicare facility in Thiuruvananthapuram, offered a cheaper generic medicine replacing Roche’s Risdiplam to treat children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Parents of children raised alarm after noticing that labels on the generic medicine packs stated “physician samples for clinical trials only”.
