What To Know About The Deadly Nipah Virus As India Races To Contain Another Outbreak
Health officials in India are racing to contain an outbreak of Nipah virus after a teenage boy died from an infection over the weekend, the latest in a series of outbreaks in the region of the incurable virus that kills as many as three in four people it infects and has been flagged as having the potential to seed a new pandemic.
Nipah is a rare and potentially deadly virus that was first discovered in 1999 after an outbreak among pigs and pig farmers in Malaysia and Singapore.
Nipah is a zoonotic virus—meaning it can spread from animals to humans—and can infect humans through direct contact with infected animals or their bodily fluids or after eating contaminated food such as fruit products contaminated with urine or saliva from infected bats.
Cases of human-to-human transmission of Nipah have also been reported during past outbreaks, particularly among the families and caregivers of infected people.
