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Nipah virus infection

    Overview

    Nipah virus infection is a zoonotic illness that is transmitted to people from animals, and can also be transmitted through contaminated food or directly from person-to-person. In infected people, it causes a range of illnesses from asymptomatic (subclinical) infection to acute respiratory illness and fatal encephalitis. The virus can also cause severe disease in animals such as pigs, resulting in significant economic losses for farmers.

    Although Nipah virus has caused only a few known outbreaks in Asia, it infects a wide range of animals and causes severe disease and death in people.

    During the first recognized outbreak in Malaysia, which also affected Singapore, most human infections resulted from direct contact with sick pigs or their contaminated tissues. Transmission is thought to have occurred via unprotected exposure to secretions from the pigs, or unprotected contact with the tissue of a sick animal.

    In subsequent outbreaks in Bangladesh and India, consumption of fruits or fruit products (such as raw date palm juice) contaminated with urine or saliva from infected fruit bats was the most likely source of infection.

    Human-to-human transmission of Nipah virus has also been reported among family and care givers of infected patients.

     

     

    Symptoms

    Human infections range from asymptomatic infection to acute respiratory infection, seizures and fatal encephalitis. Infected people initially develop symptoms that include fever, headaches, myalgia, vomiting and sore throat. This can be followed by dizziness, drowsiness, altered consciousness, and neurological signs that indicate acute encephalitis. Some people can also experience atypical pneumonia and severe respiratory problems, including acute respiratory distress. Encephalitis and seizures occur in severe cases, progressing to coma within 24 to 48 hours.

    The incubation period is from 4 to 14 days but an incubation period as long  as 45 days has been reported.

    Most people make a full recovery, although some are left with residual neurological conditions after acute encephalitis. Some cases of relapse have been reported. 

    The case fatality rate of Nipah virus infection is estimated at 40–75% but can vary by outbreak depending on surveillance and clinical management in affected areas. 

    Treatment

    There are currently no drugs or vaccines that specifically target Nipah virus infection. WHO has identified Nipah as a priority disease for the WHO Research and Development Blueprint.

    Intensive supportive care is recommended to treat severe respiratory and neurologic complications.

     

     

    News

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    Publications

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    Technical Brief: Enhancing readiness for a Nipah virus event in countries not reporting a Nipah virus event

    Nipah virus infection is an emerging serious zoonotic disease transmitted to humans through infected animals (such as fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family...

    WHO South-East Asia Regional Strategy for the prevention and control of Nipah virus infection 2023–2030

    The Regional publication  “WHO South-east Asia Regional Strategy for the prevention and control of Nipah virus infection, 2023-2030  provides...

    Nipah virus outbreaks in Bangladesh: a deadly infectious disease

    During 2001-2011, multidisciplinary teams from the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) and International Centre for Diarrhoeal...

    Documents

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    This document provides a list of Paramyxovirus vaccines and therapeutics licensed or under development for pathogens being considered as PRIORITY PATHOGENS.

    R&D roadmaps are key documents to better understand current and future health threats and identify effective health technologies to save lives.With...

    DRAFT document on Nipah baseline analysis

    Our work

    Videos

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    Geographic distribution of Henipavirus outbreaks and fruit bats of Pteropodidae Family

    Geographic distribution of Henipavirus outbreaks and fruit bats of Pteropodidae Family