The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) on Friday said the “risk of further spread of infection” from the small outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus in India is “low.”
“There is no evidence yet of increased human to human transmission,” the organization said in an email to Reuters.
W.H.O. said it did not recommend travel or trade restrictions based on the outbreak, which so far has affected only two known patients in West Bengal, India. Indian health officials traced 196 people who came into contact with these patients and placed them under observation. As of Friday, none of them has been listed as infected.
Nipah is a virus spread by bodily fluids, usually from infected animals like bats to humans. It presents with common flu-like symptoms but is extraordinarily dangerous, because it causes swelling in the brain and spinal cord. W.H.O. has estimated the fatality rate from Nipah infections at between 40 percent and 70 percent.
The two documented patients in West Bengal are both health care workers, a man and a woman. The man is reportedly showing signs of recovery, while the woman is in critical condition.
W.H.O. officials made several statements this week that the risk of further spread was low, while Indian health officials say the outbreak has been fully contained. This did not stop several countries in the region, including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Pakistan, from requiring extra screening for travelers from the West Bengal region.
In its email to Reuters, W.H.O. noted that further exposure from the Nipah outbreak is possible, since it is commonly spread by infected bats, and they can pass it along by leaving deposits of bodily fluid on fruit that is later consumed by humans.
Nipah can also spread through pigs and their meat products, and it can be passed between humans, although such transmission requires prolonged contact with an infected person.
Due to its lethality and the current lack of vaccines or pharmaceutical treatments, W.H.O. lists Nipah as one its highest-priority diseases for tracking. Nipah has a low reproduction index, which means it does not spread rapidly through human populations, although Indian epidemiologists have theorized that bats could spread the virus through airborne droplets of urine or saliva under rare conditions. Fortunately, the known strains of Nipah do not survive for long outside a living host.
Read the full article here