Airports have begun rolling out Covid-style health checks amid a possible outbreak of the Nipah virus in India.
Thailand, Nepal and Taiwan at the moment are monitoring passengers for symptoms or stepping up cleansing in a bid to stop Nipah from jumping borders.
Two nurses in Barasat, West Bengal, were sickened by the virus in late December after a patient died of an unknown disease.
One is in critical condition and the opposite is in a coma, in accordance with local media.
Health officials at the moment are monitoring as many as 200 people possibly exposed to the virus, with 100 quarantined in a hospital.
In response, tons of of passengers from India at the moment are having to undergo screenings before entering some Thai airports.
What’s the Nipah virus?
Nipah is a rare brain-damaging virus that resides in fruit bats across South and Southeast Asia.
Symptoms include flu-like symptoms, comparable to fevers, body aches and vomiting, which might worsen to respiratory syndrome and brain inflammation
There is no such thing as a vaccine or cure and mortality rates will be as high as 75%. Some survivors exhibit neurological effects, comparable to different personalities.
The disease spreads to humans through contact, like eating fruit or sap contaminated by the urine or saliva of infected fruit bats
It was first identified during an outbreak in 1998 amongst pig farmers in Malaysia, where it killed over 100 people.
Nipah has long been considered a possible epidemic threat to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Disease control checkpoints were installed at Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports on Sunday.
Airport staff screened 332 travellers aboard two flights from Kolkata yesterday, in accordance with the BBC.
Similar measures have been introduced at Phuket Airport, which offers a direct flight to Kolkata’s international airport in West Bengal.
In the event that they show Nipah symptoms, comparable to a high fever, they might be quarantined.
Travellers could also be given a ‘Health Beware Card’ upon landing, warning them to hunt medical attention in the event that they exhibit symptoms.
Public parks and wildlife areas have also been ordered by the federal government to toughen screenings for people entering caves.
‘Don’t hunt, don’t forage, don’t eat,’ officials said.
Thai prime minster Anutin Charnvirakul said today that no Nipah cases have been present in the country.
Nepal’s government has imposed prevention measures at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu and other border points.
Hospitals must flag suspicious cases to officials and health desks are screening travellers.
Taiwan, meanwhile, is about to upgrade the Nipah virus to a Category 5 notifiable disease, the very best classification.
While some reports say the variety of confirmed cases is as many as five, an infectious disease specialist told the ANI news agency this isn’t true.
Dr Sayan Chakraborty said: ‘Earlier, it gave the impression of the cases might increase, but nothing like that has happened.
‘The federal government has done an excellent job. All of the contact tracing, quarantining everyone, and testing have been done properly.
‘The panic that was there earlier isn’t any longer present, and other people have followed all of the precautions that were advised.’
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