Alarm in India: deadly Nipah bat virus killed 12-year-old boy

A 12-year-old boy has died Nipah virus, bats, in Kerala (India). According to Indian state authorities, another 20 people who may have interacted with the deceased are under observation while the neighboring districts of Kozhikode, Malappuram and Kannur have been placed on high alert.

The Nipah virus (NiV) transmitted by the saliva of fruit bats, It is very contagious and causes fatal brain inflammation or respiratory disease in humans. The first recognized outbreak of the deadly virus was reported in Malaysian pig farms in the late 1990s. In India, outbreaks of Nipah were reported in the state of West Bengal in 2001 and 2007 and twice in Kerala in 2018 and 2019.

Health officials said the boy was admitted to hospital with a very high fever and died four days later. Since identifiesron 188 connections of the deceased and marked 20 of them as “high risk”, after which they were isolated at Kozhikode Faculty of Medicine. Two of these high-risk contacts are showing symptoms and are healthcare workers.

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What is Nipah virus and what are its symptoms?

Nipah virus is a new emerging disease that can be transmitted from its natural host, the fruit bat, to animals and humans. takes its name from Sungai Nipah, the Malaysian village where he was first identified in 1998. An epidemic in pigs left around 300 people infected and more than 100 people dead in a year. In an attempt to stop the outbreak, millions of pigs were slaughtered, resulting in a huge business loss for Malaysia at the time.

The infection can lead to aggressive inflammation of the brain, called encephalitis. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the incubation period ranges from five to 14 days, with the first signs of infection appearing after three to 14 days. The first symptoms include fever, vomiting and severe headache, and some patients suffer from acute respiratory syndrome.. These first symptoms are followed by disorientation, drowsiness and mental confusion. Within a day or two, the illness can lead to coma and death. The Nipah virus has a death rate of 70 percent.

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How is the Nipah virus spread?

Recent outbreaks have shown that Nipah is transmitted through direct contact with infected humans or pets, such as cattle, pigs and cows. It is also spread by eating contaminated fruit. In 2004, an outbreak of the Nipah virus occurred in Bangladesh when people drank raw date palm sap. Investigation into this outbreak revealed that the fruit had been contaminated with bat saliva and urine.

The recent outbreak in Kerala is also believed to have been caused by dead bats found in a well at the home of a family in Changaroth village. The infection is said to have spread between family members and was passed on to others who had been in contact with the family.

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Bats, the key to the transmission of viruses to humans

Bats play a key role in reservoir for a large number of viruses that affect humans, and the shelter without getting sick themselvesthe experts agree. Some have been known for a long time, such as the rabies virus, but many have appeared in recent years, such as Ebola, the SARS coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) and Nipah.

Bats “have always been good reservoirs for many viruses, but before we had very little contact” with these speciesexplained Eric Fèvre, professor of veterinary infectious diseases at the University of Liverpool (UK) and the International Livestock Research Institute (Kenya). The reduction of tropical forests due to the advancement of cities and cultivated areas, combined with the effects of climate change, brings these animals closer to inhabited areas and pushes them to “interact more and more with human populations” and transmit their diseases. , he said. . . .