Two people have died in India from the Nipah virus in recent weeks, and many more are feared to be carrying the deadly disease, which kills up to 75% of those it infects.
Public officials in India are scrambling to contain the virus, closing schools, offices and public transport to stop the contagious disease.
Nipah is identified by the World Health Organization as a high-priority disease with the potential to start another global pandemic, making any outbreak a public health crisis.
“Nipah virus is a zoonotic virus (it is transmitted from animals to humans) and can also be transmitted through contaminated food or directly between humans,” WHO said on its website.
Not only is the disease easily spread, but the incubation period can last up to 45 days, so people carrying the Nipah virus have no symptoms and feel well — even if they spread the infection to others.
Health workers wearing protective gear move the bodies of people who died of Nipah virus infection at a hospital in the Indian state of Kerala.AFP via Getty Images
There is no vaccine or cure for Nipah infection, so treatment is usually limited to relieving the symptoms – fever, headache, cough, sore throat and vomiting – in those who have the disease.
In severe cases, patients can experience confusion, seizures, coma or swelling of the brain (encephalitis), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In fact, some people who survive Nipah infection have long-term neurological symptoms such as seizures, convulsions and erratic personality changes.
Residents put up signs reading “Nipah containment zone” on barricades erected to block the road after authorities declared the area a quarantine zone.REUTERS
Nipah virus can infect a variety of animals, including horses, pigs, sheep, goats, cats, dogs and especially bats.
“It is carried by fruit bats that sit in the tops of trees,” said Dr. Joanne Macdonald, professor of molecular engineering at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, told the Guardian. “They can urinate and contaminate the fruit, and when people eat that, they get the virus and then they get sick.”
Other outbreaks of the Nipah virus have occurred since the virus was first discovered in 1998 among pig and pig farmers in Malaysia and Singapore.
A health worker removes biohazard waste from a Nipah virus isolation center at a government hospital in the southern Indian state of Kerala. AFP via Getty Images
The current outbreak is centered in the southern Indian state of Kerala, where previous outbreaks were recorded in 2018, 2019 and 2021.
Along with Nipah, the WHO has identified other “priority diseases” that have the potential to cause the next outbreak: Marburg and Ebola viruses; Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever; Lassa fever; Rift Valley Fever; Middle East respiratory syndrome, also known as MERS; severe acute respiratory syndrome, commonly referred to as SARS; COVID-19 and the Zika virus.
The last disease on the WHO list is “Disease X”, the code name the WHO uses for diseases currently unknown to medical science to cause human infection.
Health workers wearing protective gear move a woman with Nipah virus symptoms to an isolation ward at a government hospital in the Indian state of Kerala. AFP via Getty Images
As a new disease agent — whether a virus, bacteria, fungus or other pathogen — there will most likely be no vaccine or few, if any, treatments available.
“This is not the stuff of science fiction,” said Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Epidemic Preparedness Innovation Coalition, told the Telegraph. “This is a scenario we have to prepare for.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
