Two infected nurses in West Bengal (Kolkata) have reactivated the alarm about the Nipah virus in India. At this time, there have been no confirmed deaths from this lethal disease in Southeast Asia, the only place where infections have been recorded since the disease was known. However, numerous media outlets have echoed this health alert in India, even talking about “risk of global epidemic”, “WHO alert” or “covid restrictions return”. The health authorities only confirm two cases of infections registered around January 11.
What has happened?
On January 12, 2026, two suspected cases of Nipah virus infection in West Bengal (India), according to the WHO Southeast Asia office, although they were identified on January 11. On January 14, the positive result for Nipah was confirmed. These are two nurses from a private clinic in Kolkata, 24 kilometers north of Calcutta, who would have been exposed to the virus during a work visit to the Purba Bardhaman district, where they were in contact with a person who died of unknown causes (not confirmed as a death by Nipah).
The two patients presented serious clinical symptoms. One of them has evolved favorably, with a decrease in oxygen dependency and the withdrawal of intubation on January 16, 2026. The second nurse remains in a coma, with no improvement in her clinical condition. They are the first cases detected in West Bengal since 2007.
Are there more infections?
A doctor and another nurse who treated one of the infected patients later developed fever and cough and were admitted for fear that they had been infected, but both tested negative for Nipah, although they remain under observation as high- and low-risk contacts. Another suspected case, a healthcare worker, has been admitted to the Belleghata infectious diseases hospital.
Hence, many media outlets have claimed that there are five infected, a figure denied in India. In , the former State Government Health Advisor and infectious disease specialist, Sayan Chakraborty, stated this Monday that so far there are only two confirmed cases: “We received an update an hour ago. It indicated that there are only two such cases. Some media had claimed that there were five cases, but it is not true. There were some suspected cases and their tests came back negative and all those patients have already been discharged. No other cases have been found yet.”
Is the virus so dangerous?
Yes, due to its lethality and the lack of medical response. Since it was first identified in Malaysia in 1999, its name has been repeated intermittently in World Health Organization (WHO) reports and health alerts in South Asia. due to a worrying combination of factors: its high lethality—its mortality rate can range between 40% and 75%—and the absence of approved treatments or vaccines. Nipah is a zoonotic virus, that is, it is transmitted from animals to humans. Contagion occurs through contaminated food or between people, although it is not very contagious compared to other infections, but it is mainly transmitted due to contact with fruit bats or pigs carrying the virus.
Beatriz Escudero, researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), places the virus within the group of pathogens that share a trait: that humans “are an accidental host.” As with others, such as Ebola, Nipah circulates naturally in animals and only occasionally in people.
This researcher also clarifies that the lack of a specific treatment does not respond to a single cause. According to Escudero, it is due to the scientific complexity—working with Nipah requires biosafety level 4 facilities, the highest that exist—and the lack of funding. “These types of diseases are not the ones in which more is invested,” he points out. However, it highlights some progress in this regard: at least three vaccines are in development. Some of them have been tested in humans, in phases one and two, and others have shown effectiveness in primates.
Is it a serious outbreak?
In recent years, small annual outbreaks have been occurring in India and Bangladesh, the only countries where cases of this disease have occurred, along with Malaysia and Singapore. In each of these recent outbreaks, with only a few infected (two to six), deaths have always been recorded: four and five in Bangladesh in 2024 and 2025, two each year in India. Now in West Bengal there have been no deaths. The worst recent outbreak was in Kerala, India, with 17 deaths in 2018.
What do the Spanish authorities say?
The global risk is considered “very low due to the lack of natural reservoirs in most countries,” says the Spanish Ministry of Health. And he adds: “The current risk for the population of Spain, to be re-evaluated as more information becomes available, is estimated to be very low.” “In any case, the pattern of nosocomial transmission [dentro de un centro hospitalario] observed in this outbreak indicates the importance of infection control measures in the healthcare field,” he warns in a statement.
What is the real danger now?
The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the risk of expansion of the Nipah virus in India “low.” “India has the capacity to contain these outbreaks, as has been proven in past cases,” a spokesperson for the health agency said in response to EFE.
The West Bengal Government has implemented precautionary measures to prevent further spread. Surveillance has been intensified in the districts involved, along with active tracing of high-risk contacts. About two hundred people have been placed under surveillance and control in their homes to prevent the spread. The Deputy Deputy Director of Health of the Government of West Bengal, Subarna Goswami, has told EFE that, because the incubation period of the virus can vary from 4 to 45 days, contacts must be kept under supervision. “Only after three months will we be able to say that the outbreak is over,” he said. To contain the spread, even bats have been sampled.
Escudero, who worked with the virus for four years in Germany, distinguishes the two major lineages of the virus. The first, detected in Malaysia, was linked to a cycle in which bats contaminated fruits—such as mango—which were then consumed by pigs, animals that amplified the virus and facilitated its transmission to humans. This, however, is not repeated in subsequent outbreaks. “The Bangladesh lineage is what has given rise to all the outbreaks that have occurred since, both in Bangladesh and, recently, in India,” he explains.
In this second lineage, the initial contagion mechanism is different. During the date palm sap collection season, which runs from approximately November to March, the sap is exposed to the environment. Fruit bats—attracted by its high sugar content—can drink it and contaminate it with saliva, urine or feces. The winter temperatures in the region, the researcher points out, favor the virus to be preserved in that sap. “When people consume it, they become infected,” he explains. From there, transmission can occur between humans, through coughing or secretions.
And so much alarm in the media?
Although it is not by far the most serious outbreak in recent years, numerous media outlets have raised the alarm about the case to a case of , in the words of parasitologist Rafael Toledo. Media interest has possibly been spurred by the dissemination of the measures established at airports to control the health of travelers arriving from West Bengal.
