SINGAPORE: With the COVID-19 pandemic barely in our rearview mirror, hearing of a recent virus outbreak in India could understandably cause alarm.
On the one hand, people around the globe still remember proper protocols and how to keep themselves safe. On the other hand, another widespread disease outbreak is something our world can ill-afford.
The good news is that at this point, the transmission pathways of the Nipah virus are limited, especially in comparison to the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, or even the flu virus. There have been outbreaks nearly every year in different countries in Asia, including one in Bangladesh last year, since 1998.
In addition, although there was a cross-border spread from Malaysia to Singapore during that first outbreak, there have been no instances of a widespread outbreak that affected several countries.
Assuming the virus will not mutate to make transmission easier, the outbreak is likely to be contained in West Bengal. While some reports say that five people are currently infected, India’s health ministry has said that there have been only two confirmed cases of Nipah virus since last month. However, almost 100 people have been quarantined.
The World Health Organization has listed Nipah, like COVID-19, among the top 10 priority diseases because of the possibility of an epidemic being triggered. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that some Asian countries, such as Thailand and Nepal, are taking a further precautionary step of screening arrivals from India.
In China, because of widespread travel during the Lunar New Year period, some have asked for travel from India to be curtailed or even shut down.
However, in a report issued last Friday (Jan 23) by China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention that urged increased vigilance against travel-borne infectious diseases, while malaria and dengue fever were on the list, Nipah was not.
What is the Nipah virus?
The virus is a zoonotic one, which means it is transmitted from animals, such as pigs and bats, to humans. Transmission can also spread from one person to another, through ways such as contaminated food or close contact.
The incubation period for Nipah can last between four and 21 days. Some infected individuals never show symptoms, and those who do usually exhibit flu-like symptoms, including fever, headache, muscle pain, respiratory symptoms, and fatigue, all of a sudden.
At worst, those who are infected may develop meningitis or encephalitis, inflammation of the brain. This is the hallmark of the Nipah virus.
The virus also has a high fatality rate, reported to be around 40% and 75%, depending on the outbreak, but because past outbreaks have been contained within specific geographic areas and the number of infections has been relatively small, the number of deaths from the Nipah virus has also been small.
To date, there are no vaccines or treatments for the Nipah virus, but a Jan 28 report in the South China Morning Post says that a drug in China, initially developed to treat Covid-19, may help manage Nipah outbreaks and contain the spread of the virus. /TISG
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