India Health officials have closed schools and offices in Kerala and hundreds of residents are being testedDespite Nipah virus’s high fatality rate and no specific treatments available, experts said it’s very unlikely the virus will lead to a global emergency and that it’s a reminder of how habitat destruction has led to animals transmitting the disease to humans.s southern state of Kerala is currently facing an outbreak of the rare, but potentially serious Nipah virus with at least two deaths so far, according to local reportsHere’s what you need to know about the virus, including signs and symptoms, how the virus is transmitted and what treatments are availableThe virus can also spread from person to person by being in close contact or coming into contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person
Nipah virus is a type of zoonotic disease, meaning it’s primarily found in animals and can initially spread between animals and peopleIt was first discovered in 1999 after a disease affected both pigs and people in Malaysia and Singapore, according to theThe virus is most often spread by fruit bats, also known as flying foxes, and it can spread through direct or indirect contactPeople can become infected if they have close contact with an infected animal or body fluids such as, for example, the fruit bat saliva on a fruit, and then it flies off and then a person eats the fruit,” Dr. Diana Finkel, an associate professor of medicine in the division of infectious disease at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, told ABC News
What are the symptoms
The virus can also spread from person to person by being in encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain. These can progress to a coma within 24 to 48 hours, according to the CDCDeaths range anywhere between 40% and 75% among all cases, the federal health agency said. Some permanent changes among survivors have been noted, including persistent convulsionsclose contact or coming into contact with the bodily fluids of an infected personSymptoms typically occur between four and 14 days after exposure disorientation, drowsiness, seizures or The most common symptom is fever followed by headache, cough, sore throat, difficulty breathing and vomitingDiagnosing the virus in the early stages is often difficult because the symptoms resemble many other illnesses, the CDC saidThe virus can lead to severe symptoms, including
Experts said there are treatments currently under development. One is a monoclonal antibody, which is are immune system proteins that are manufactured in a lab and mimic the antibodies the body naturally creates when fighting the virusFinkel said the drug has already completed phase I clinical trials and is currently being used on a compassionate basisResearchers are also studying the potential benefit of remdesivir the intravenous medication used to treat COVID-19 which has been shown to work well in nonhuman primates with Nipah virusExperts said that while anything is possible, it’s very unlikely that the outbreak in India will lead to global spread
If you take this current outbreak in Kerala, as an example, you have to think about why are fruit bats that harbor this Nipah virus, why are they coming into contact with people?” Dr. Peter Rabinowitz, director of the University of Washington Center for One Health Research, told ABC News. “What is changing in terms of the movement of the bat populations? Are they leaving Nipah is a zoonotic virus, which is transmitted from animals and to humans. But Nipah is far more deadly than the coronavirus that has wreaked havoc throughout the globe. Transmission generally occurs when people come in direct contact with infected animals or through the consumption of the meat of infected animals