US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Nipah virus
India, and other countries in Asia, are on alert because of the Nipah virus. Its mortality rate exceeds 70%.
O Nipah is a virus hemorrhagic disease that causes high fever, headache and behavioral disturbancesamong the initial symptoms, and encephalitis, at a more advanced stage, presenting a mortality rate greater than 70%.
Outbreaks of the Nipah virus, for which there is still no approved vaccine or cure, occur almost annually in the Bangladesh and in the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal, occasionally in other countries in South and Southeast Asia.
A India recorded the first outbreaks in humans, in West Bengal, in 2001 and 2007, when at least 50 deaths were recorded. The most recent outbreak, in July 2015, resulted in two deaths in the southern state of Kerala.
The virus was first identified in Malaysia, in 1998, in the region that gave it its name.
Nipah is transmitted through eating food infected by bats (frugivores, essentially) through fluids such as saliva and blood, or urine and feces.
An infection can also arise through direct contact with pigs.
The World Health Organization has already identified cases of transmission between humans, mainly through close contact with the body fluids of an infected person.
Alert, control
This Tuesday, health authorities in the India issued a alert epidemiological after confirming a new outbreak of the Nipah virus, which has already resulted in at least two confirmed cases and led to quarantine of 190 people.
The Deputy Director of Health of the Government of West Bengal, Subarna Goswami, admitted to the Indian news agency ANI that more cases could emerge, “considering that the period of incubation of the Nipah virus varies between four to 45 days.”
“We will have to look for active cases and trace their contacts. They will need to be kept under observation. Only after three months will we be able to say that a third case has not emerged and that the outbreak is over,” said the expert.
It is suspected that this virus was contracted from contact with a hospital patient Narayana with severe respiratory symptoms – who died before testing.
The Government of Hong Kong announced a strengthening of health checks for travelers arriving at the airport in the Chinese region from India, following a new outbreak of the Nipah hemorrhagic virus.
In a statement published on Monday night, the director of the Health Protection Service, Edwin Tsui Lok Kin, confirmed the deployment of teams to the airport.
The objective is to “screen the temperature of travelers at relevant boarding gates, carry out medical assessments on symptomatic travelers and refer suspected cases with potential impact on public health to hospitals for examination”, explained the director.
Despite the measure, Edwin Tsui highlighted that, to date, no case of Nipah virus infection has been recorded in Hong Kong and that there are no direct flights between the territory and Calcutta, capital of the Indian state of West Bengal.
Also the Health Services of Macau said they are “closely monitoring” developments in Calcutta and recommended that residents of the Chinese region avoid traveling to West Bengal.
Medical assessment and screening of travelers arriving from India will be reinforced at Macau’s borders, the SSM added.
Inspired by film
The film, released in 2011, was inspired precisely by a virus that originates from… bats and pigs.
In this work, the infection contagion chain involves bats and pigs – just like the Nipah virus.
“Somewhere, somehow, the wrong bat met the wrong pig“, comments the character Ally Hextall, quotes .
Another coincidence: both infections affect cells in the respiratory and nervous systems.
In a scene from the same film, Contagion, a Nipah virus protein model.
It should be noted that this film portrays a global pandemic in modern times.
Yes, it was a much cited and seen work in the early days of COVID-19.
