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Any news of an outbreak of a virus can bring a lot of us back to 2020, when the then novel coronavirus sparked a years-long pandemic.
India has seen an increase in confirmed cases of the rare, brain-damaging virus, even prompting neighbouring countries to bring back health checks.
Now with ‘Nipah virus’ within the headlines, should people within the UK be frightened?
Metro spoke with several health experts to search out out.
What’s the Nipah virus?
The Nipah virus is present in fruit bats across South and Southeast Asia.
It spreads to humans through contact with the animals’ bodily fluids, equivalent to eating fruit or sap contaminated with the bats’ urine or saliva.
There may be evidence that it may well infect other animals, including pigs, dogs, cats, goats, horses and sheep.
The virus was first identified during an outbreak in 1998 amongst pig farmers in Malaysia, where it killed over 100 people.
Dr Kaja Abbas, an associate professor on the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that sporadic outbreaks of the virus have happened since 2001 in Bangladesh and India.
‘Along with zoonotic transmission from animals equivalent to fruit bats to humans, human-to-human transmission and transmission from contaminated fruit products (equivalent to date palm juice) to humans also occur,’ he added.
Symptoms can develop between 4 and 21 days after infection. They include flu-like symptoms, equivalent to fevers, body aches and vomiting.
Over time, nevertheless, it may well cause respiratory syndrome and encephalitis, or brain inflammation.
Between 45% and 70% the people who’re infected die. There is no such thing as a vaccine and no cure.
About 20% of survivors suffer neurological effects, equivalent to seizures or personality changes, in response to the World Health Organization.
Where is the virus now?
The primary two recorded cases were in West Bengal, the fourth most populous state in India.
Health experts in India have repeatedly stressed that there are only two confirmed cases, despite reports of five.
The patients were two nurses employed at the identical private hospital in Barasat, Katoya.
The nurses, each 25 – began feeling unwell in December, before their conditions spiralled and so they were taken to emergency care.
While a male nurse has since been discharged, the opposite, a girl, died of cardiac arrest last week.
Indian health officials aren’t sure how the pair became infected, but suspect they might have had date palm sap while visiting the village of Ghughragachhi.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said last week that a girl in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, died from the virus.
But in each countries, WHO has stressed that the danger of human-to-human transmission could be very low.
Nearby Thailand, Nepal, Taiwan and Pakistan at the moment are monitoring passengers for Nipah symptoms.
Could Nipah virus result in a world lockdown in future?
No must fill up on toilet roll just yet – the Nipah virus has never even been reported within the UK before.
Jones, a professor of virology on the University of Reading, said that the Nipah virus could be very different from the coronavirus.
He said: ‘Following Covid, any recent virus is treated with alarm – could it grow to be pandemic? – but for Nipah this cannot occur because the virus doesn’t transmit by air and has never shown any sign of doing so.’
WHO considers Nipah as a possible epidemic candidate, a regional outbreak of an illness that spreads unexpectedly.
A pandemic, nevertheless, is a disease that spreads worldwide.
What’s the UK’s current guidance around Nipah virus?
The UK Health Security Agency Nipah virus guidance says none of this can be a sign that individuals should panic – it’s just all the time an excellent idea to know what a virus is.
No cases have been recorded within the UK.
There is no such thing as a mention of Nipah virus within the Foreign Office’s travel advice for India.
To travellers, the UKHSA recommends people:
- Avoid contact with bats and their environments, especially sick bats
- Don’t eat raw or partially fermented date palm sap – all the time boil date palm juice first
- Wash all fruit thoroughly with clean water and peel before eating
- Wear protective clothing and gloves when handling sick animals and through slaughter and culling procedures
- Practice good hand hygiene.
The agency stresses that the danger for tourists visiting endemic countries is ‘very low’ if safety recommendations are followed.
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