Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday confirmed the Nipah virus outbreak in the Kozhikode district after the results of samples from the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune were released.
What's the Nipah virus and why should one take all possible precautions to avoid contracting it? Here's a fact-check.
Nipah's origin
The virus was first identified in the Kampung Sungai Nipah area of Malaysia in 1998 when a brain fever epidemic broke. The disease spreads from fruit bats to humans as well as animals. Most of those infected people were workers at pig breeding centres.
The virus can also pass on to humans from fruits that have been touched by bats. It could spread from infected people to others. No vaccine has been developed yet.
The NiV infection was reported later in Bangladesh in 2001 after it spread to humans who consumed date palm sap contaminated by infected fruit bats. According to WHO, human-to-human transmission has also been documented, including in a hospital in India.
It was reported in many studies that there was a threat of further outbreaks of this dangerous disease larger on the Indian subcontinent.
Signs and Symptoms
Infection with NiV is associated with encephalitis (inflammation of the brain). The disease begins with breathing difficulty, terrible headache and fever and progresses to brain fever. The death rate among infected people is 74.5 per cent.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), NiV infection in humans has a range of clinical presentations, from asymptomatic infection to acute respiratory syndrome and fatal encephalitis. The primary treatment for human cases is intensive supportive care.
Transmission
Transmission of NiV to humans occurs after direct contact with infected bats, infected pigs, or other NiV-infected people.