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Nipah Virus Alert in West Bengal: In the last 24 hours, West Bengal has seen at least three new instances of the extremely contagious Nipah virus. The current number of active cases is five. According to reports, a doctor, a nurse, and a health-care worker have been infected with the Nipah virus in West Bengal, bringing the total number of active cases to five. Officials revealed that about 100 people have been placed in home isolation over the last two days after the first two nurses tested positive for the Nipah virus on Monday. This has caused speculations on how the virus found its way to the human community and what the communities should know to remain safe.
The Nipah virus (NiV) is a perilous virus which is capable of causing serious disease in humans. It is one of a family of viruses that normally reside in animals, especially those of the fruit bat (also known as flying foxes) family. It is transmitted between animals and humans; thus, it is a zoonotic disease.
There is the development of high fever, headache, breathing difficulties, and severe inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) in people infected with Nipah. The disease is characterised by a high mortality ranging between 40 per cent and as high as seventy percent or even more, according to the outbreak and the health care reaction.
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The natural hosts of the Nipah virus are the fruit bats of the Pteropus species. This implies that the virus coexists in these bats with minimal catalysis in these bats. The virus can, however, be shed by bats in their saliva, urine, and droppings. Infection may occur if people contact these materials. These giant bats are found in South Asia, including in India and Bangladesh.
Researchers have been analysing previous cases of outbreaks in Bangladesh and India to comprehend how the spillover (animal-to-human) occurs.The commonest pathway is food contaminated with bat secretions:
Among the key methods by which the Nipah virus can transfer to humans, there will be the contamination of food supplies by bats, which people eat:
Abnormal spread of the virus between bats and pigs, then between pigs and humans, occurred within the first recorded Nipah outbreak in Malaysia (1999). The pigs were amplifying hosts they contained very high amounts of the virus and had more potential of transmitting the virus to individuals who came into close contact with the swine.
Once the virus is in a human being, it may even be transmitted by one individual to another by simple physical interaction with body fluids like saliva, blood, and respiratory fluids. This can mostly be witnessed among family members, caregivers, or even the healthcare workers looking after ailing patients.
In the latest case in West Bengal, two of the nurses were positive for the Nipah virus and were in critical condition in the hospital. Health investigators continue to examine how the initial nurse might have been infected one of the theories was that the first nurse must have consumed the raw date palm sap at a village party along the Bangladesh border.
To help this, authorities are performing contact tracing and isolating individuals who might be infected with the virus to stop the further spread of the virus. Physicians are promoting good hygiene, no touching of bats or pigs, and educating populations on avoiding raw palm sap or possibly dirty fruits.
The following are some of the practical steps that can be taken by the people:
Knowing how the Nipah virus is transmitted will allow communities to remain on the watch and minimise risks, namely, in such states as West Bengal, where contact between humans and animals is frequent and an outbreak is possible.
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