2023-09-20 14:36:47
A rare outbreak of Nipah is currently occurring in India. Last week, the country’s authorities announced that they were working to contain an outbreak of the rare virus transmitted from animals to humans and which notably causes high fever with a high mortality rate.
Decryption of this rare virus in three questions.
What is Nipah virus?
The first outbreak of Nipah was recorded in 1998 after the virus spread among pig farmers in Malaysia. The virus is named after the village in the Southeast Asian country where it was discovered.
Outbreaks of this virus are rare, but Nipah has been listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) – alongside Ebola, Zika and Covid-19 – as one of several diseases meriting priority research due to of their potential to cause a global epidemic. Nipah is usually spread to humans through animals or contaminated food, but it can also be spread directly between humans.
Fruit bats are the natural carriers of the virus and have been identified as the most likely cause of subsequent outbreaks.
Symptoms include high fever, vomiting and respiratory infection, but severe cases can be characterized by seizures and brain inflammation leading to coma.
There is no vaccine against Nipah virus. Patients experience a mortality rate of between 40% and 75%, according to the WHO.
What about previous epidemics?
The first Nipah outbreak killed more than 100 people in Malaysia and led to the culling of a million pigs in a bid to contain the virus.
It has also spread to Singapore, with 11 cases and one death among slaughterhouse workers who came into contact with pigs imported from Malaysia.
Since then, the disease has mainly been reported in Bangladesh and India, with both countries recording their first outbreaks in 2001. Bangladesh has been hardest hit in recent years, with more than 100 people dying from Nipah since 2001.
Two outbreaks in India killed more than 50 people before being brought under control.
The southern state of Kerala has recorded two deaths from Nipah and four more confirmed cases since last month. The authorities have closed certain schools and carried out large testing campaigns.
This latest Nipah outbreak represents the fourth wave in Kerala in five years. The virus killed 17 people when it first appeared in 2018.
Increasing transmissions from animals to humans?
Appearing thousands of years ago, zoonoses – diseases transmissible from animals to humans – have multiplied over the last 20 to 30 years.
The development of international travel has allowed them to spread more quickly. By occupying larger and larger areas of the planet, humans are also contributing to the disruption of ecosystems and increasing the likelihood of random viral mutations transmissible to humans, experts point out.
Industrial agriculture increases the risk of pathogens spreading between animals while deforestation increases contact between wildlife, domestic animals and humans.
By mixing more, species will transmit their viruses more, which will encourage the emergence of new diseases potentially transmissible to humans. Climate change will push many animals to flee their ecosystems towards more habitable lands, warned a study published by the scientific journal Nature in 2022.
According to estimates published in the journal Science in 2018, there are 1.7 million unknown viruses
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