The World Health Organization (WHO) has assessed that the risk of the deadly Nipah virus spreading globally is low, following three cases of infection in India and Bangladesh, including one death. The risk to Europeans is also minimal.the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had previously indicated.
Symptoms include high fever, vomiting, and respiratory infection. Severe cases can be characterized by seizures and brain inflammation leading to a coma. There is no vaccine against this virus, which is usually transmitted to humans through contact with animals or contaminated food. The mortality rate ranges from 40 to 75%, according to the WHO.
“ The WHO assesses the risk of Nipah virus spreading, both regionally and globally, as low.“,” said its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at a press conference in Geneva on Wednesday, February 11. Last month, two cases of infection with this virus were confirmed in the state of West Bengal, in northeastern India. It was in this same state that the first cases were recorded in the country in 2001.
Read alsoNipah: What is this virus that is worrying India?
One death in Bangladesh
A woman died in Bangladesh last week after contracting the virus, raising fears of wider spread" . " The two homes are not related", stated the WHO director, even though both occurred along the border between India and Bangladesh", where we find in particular " fruit bats, known to be natural carriers of the virus“No other cases have been identified after tracing more than 230 contacts.”
The first Nipah outbreak was recorded in 1998 after the virus spread among pig farmers in Malaysia. It is named after the village in that Southeast Asian country where it was discovered. In 2018, an outbreak in Kerala, a state in southern India, killed 17 people.
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