Nipah Virus | Nipah virus outbreak in India

 

Nipah Virus Test 

History of Nipah Virus

In 1997, a new disease of pigs with respiratory problems and encephalitis appeared in Malaysia. The encephalitis like disease also  appeared in workers on affected pig farms soon afterwards of new disease of pigs. Over a two year period several hundred people got infected and more than 100 deaths occurred. In 1999 scientists succeeded to isolate a new virus from the brain of one of the patients who had died from encephalitis like disease. The virus was a paramyxovirus with similar characteristics to Hendra virus and it was named Nipah virus.

A research was conducted to find out details of Nipah virus including its possible reservoirs of infection. Research found  fruit eating bats of the genus Pteropus to be reservoirs of Nipah virus infection. Infectious virus was isolated from bat's urine and virus-specific antibodies were found in their blood.

Research found routes of transmission of Nipah virus as :
[  ] Bat to pig and pig to human transmission
[  ] Bat to human transmission
[  ] Human to human transmission

Nipah virus outbreak also occurred in Bangladesh and India in few years ago. In this outbreaks there was no evidence of transmission from pigs to human and it is also believed that transmission may have occurred from bats to humans. There was also evidence of human-to-human of the virus.

Nipah virus infection

Nipah virus , a bat borne virus causes Nipah virus infection in humans and other animals. So, Nipah virus infection is a zoonotic disease that transmitted to humans from animals and can also be transmitted through contaminated food or directly from person-to-person. It causes asymptomatic illness to acute respiratory illness and fatal encephalitis in infected people.

Although Nipah virus has caused only few outbreaks in Asia, it causes disease with high mortality rate. It infects wide range of animals and causes severe disease and death in people.

In 1997, the first recognized Nipah virus infection outbreak in Malaysia, which also affected Singapore, most human infections resulted from direct contact with sick pigs or their contaminated tissues. Transmission is thought to be occurred through unprotected exposure to secretions from the infected pigs or unprotected contact with the tissue of a infected animal.

In second Nipah virus infection outbreaks in India and Bangladesh, it was found that infection occurred by consuming fruits or fruit products contaminated with urine or saliva from infected fruit bats (Pteropus).

Human to human transmission of infection of Nipah virus has also be found to occur among family and care givers of infected people. So it is necessary to isolate infected persons as soon as possible.

Symptoms of Nipah virus infection

The symptoms of the infection range from asymptomatic illness to acute  respiratory infection, seizures and fatal encephalitis.

Infected people in early stage of illness mostly develop systems like fever, headache, myalgia, vomiting, sore throat. As infection become more severe, patients feel dizziness, drowsiness, altered consciousness, neurological signs that indicate encephalitis. Patients can also experience pneumonia and acute respiratory distress.  In severe conditions of patients, encephalitis and seizures result to coma within 24 to 48 hours of seizures.

Generally incubation period of illness is 4 to 14 days but in some  cases 45 days has been reported.
The case fatality rate of virus is estimated 40 to 75 percent which far more deadly than SARS-COV-2.

Treatment of Nipah virus infection

Currently there are neither drugs nor vaccine against Nipah virus infection. Intensive supportive care is recommended to treat severe respiratory distress and neurologic complications.

Nipah Virus Outbreaks in India in 2021

The death of a 12- year old boy on 5th  September, 2021 sparked worries of a Nipah virus outbreak in India. According to news papers published from Delhi, a twelve year old boy died of Nipah virus infection in Kozhikode, Kerala state, India, on 5th September, 2021. The  government of state is quickly ramping up efforts to stop a potential outbreak of the  deadly Nipah virus.

Kerala state of India is on high alert after a death of a boy due to Nipah virus infection. Health officials have started to do contact tracing and isolating hundreds of people who came in contact with the boy, who died at hospital in the coastal city of Kozhikode.
One health official said that more samples will be tested  and 48 people including eight people that are tested negative,  are  being monitored at a hospital. Health officials have been deployed to carry out door-to-door surveillance and identifying secondary contacts.

Kerala state of India faced with Nipah virus outbreak also in 2018. At that time more than a dozen people died from the Nipah virus.