Nipah virus outbreak scare

AUTHORITIES in India are trying to contain a rare outbreak of Nipah, a virus which is spread from animals to humans that has a high mortality rate.

The first Nipah outbreak was recorded in 1998, after the virus spread among pig farmers in Malaysia. The virus is named after the village where it was discovered.

Outbreaks are rare but Nipah has been listed by the World Health Organization (WHO), alongside Ebola, Zika and Covid19, as one of several diseases deserving of priority research for their potential to cause a global epidemic.

Nipah usually spreads to humans from animals or through contaminated food, but it can also be transmitted directly among people.

Fruit bats are the natural carriers of the virus.

Symptoms include intense fever, vomiting and a respiratory infection, but severe cases can involve seizures and brain inflammation that results in a coma.

There is no vaccine for Nipah. Patients have a mortality rate of between 40% and 75%, depending on the public health response to the virus, the WHO says.

The first Nipah outbreak killed more than 100 people in Malaysia and prompted the culling of a million pigs in an effort to contain the virus.

It also spread to Singapore, with 11 cases and one death among slaughterhouse workers who came into contact with pigs imported from Malaysia.

Since then, the disease has mainly been recorded in Bangladesh and India.

In Bangladesh, more than 100 people have died of Nipah since 2001.

Two early outbreaks in India killed more than 50 people before they were brought under control.

The southern state of Kerala has recorded two deaths from Nipah and four other confirmed cases since last month.

Authorities there have closed some schools and instituted mass testing.

This marks Kerala’s fourth recorded spate of Nipah cases in five years.

The virus killed 17 people during the first instance in 2018.

The state has managed to stamp out previous outbreaks within a matter of weeks through widespread testing and strict isolation of those in contact with patients.

Having first appeared thousands of years ago, zoonoses – diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans – have multiplied over the past 20 to 30 years.

The growth of international travel has allowed them to spread more quickly.

By occupying increasingly large areas of the planet, experts say, humans also contribute to disruption of the ecosystem and increase the likelihood of random virus mutations that are transmissible to humans.

According to estimates published in the journal Science in 2018, there are 1.7 million unknown viruses in mammals and birds, 540 000 to 850 000 of them with the capacity to infect humans.