Nipah virus alert in Asia: it would be the next pandemic – News

Even with the coronavirus pandemic far from over, the Nipah virus could trigger a probable pandemic.

The last outbreak occurred in Kerala, India, in 2018, when it killed 17 people out of a total of 19 infected – a death rate of 89%. On this occasion, the city tackled the crisis and sent Ebola management experts to implement the necessary protocols to prevent its spread.

Nipah was born in tropical regions that have a rich diversity of biodiversity, which means that they are also home to a large number of pathogens. This increases the chances of a new virus appearing.

Supaporn Wacharapluesadee heads the Thai Red Cross Center for Health Sciences and Emerging Infectious Diseases in Bangkok. For the past decade, he has been part of Predict, a global initiative to detect and stop diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans.

He and his team sampled many species, but their main target was bats, which are known to harbor many coronaviruses. They were able to figure out the disease in just days, detecting the first case of Covid-19 outside of China.

Growing human populations and increasing contact between humans and wildlife also increase the risk factor. During a project that sampled thousands of bats, many new viruses were discovered.

Among these is the Nipah. Fruit bats are its natural host. “This is of great concern because there is no cure and this virus has a high death rate,” Wacharapluesadee said.

According to the expert quoted by the BBC, there are several reasons why the Nipah virus is so sinister. The disease’s long incubation period, which can be up to 45 days, means there is a good chance that an infected animal or person, not knowing they are sick, will spread it. It can also infect a wide range of animals, increasing the possibility of its spread. And it can be spread by direct contact or by consuming contaminated food.

A person infected with the Nipah virus can have respiratory symptoms such as cough, sore throat, body aches and fatigue, and encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that can cause seizures and death.

According to BBC, Wacharapluesadee hopes to continue working together to fight the Nipah virus in Southeast Asia.

60% of the world’s population already lives in Asia-Pacific regions and rapid urbanization is still underway.

According to the World Bank, nearly 200 million people moved to urban areas in East Asia during the first decade of the 21st century.