There have been two confirmed cases of Nipah virus in a hospital in West Bengal, India. Close to 200 people were also exposed to the infection. This has sparked concern across Asia, as the virus is extremely contagious. Several Asian countries have now instituted Covid-era airport screenings to monitor the spread of infection for which there’s currently no vaccine or cure.
This zoonotic infection originates from direct contact with infected animals – mainly flying fox bats and pigs – or their contaminated tissues and secretions. The disease can spread easily from person-to-person through contact with bodily fluids and cause minor to severe infections with a fatality rate of between 40% and 70%.
Those infected are “typically sick for 3 to 14 days with fever, headache, cough, sore throat and difficulty breathing,” said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In more severe cases, people may experience “brain swelling (or encephalitis), where severe symptoms can include confusion, drowsiness and seizures,” which can lead to coma in 24 to 48 hours. Symptoms may appear anywhere from four to 14 days after infection.
While this virus is making headlines now, Nipah was first discovered in Malaysia in 1999. Since then, outbreaks have “occurred almost annually in Asia, particularly in Bangladesh and India,” between December and April, said The Washington Post.
But the current outbreak is West Bengal’s first since 2007. This represents a “return of Nipah to this area after a long gap”, Lauren Sauer, the director of the Special Pathogen Research Network at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said to the Post, “which is concerning from a surveillance standpoint”. | 
