Article: Deadly bat-borne virus with no cure spreading in India with 'epidemic potential' as new cases emerge (Nipah virus)

[Sly Saint]

Indian health officials are scrambling to contain a deadly virus after five cases of the incurable disease were detected near one of the country's biggest cities.

The bat-borne Nipah virus has been identified in West Bengal, close to the state capital Kolkata, India's third-most populous city, prompting urgent contact tracing and quarantines.
Authorities confirmed that three new infections were reported this week, according to officials cited by the Press Trust of India news agency.

They include a doctor, a nurse, and a health staff member. Two nurses - one male and one female - had already tested positive earlier.

Both were working at the private Narayana Multispecialty Hospital in Barasat, around 15 miles north of Kolkata.

Narayan Swaroop Nigam, the principal secretary of the department of health and family, said one of the two nurses is in critical condition after both developed high fevers and respiratory issues between New Year's Eve and January 2, The Telegraph reports.

The critically ill nurse, who is now in a coma, is believed to have contracted the infection while treating a patient suffering from severe respiratory problems.

That patient died before tests could be carried out.
In response, officials have tested 180 people and quarantined 20 high-risk contacts as fears grow of further spread.

Nipah virus spreads between animals and humans, most commonly from infected bats or pigs, and can also be transmitted from person to person.

Fruit bats, which are widespread across India's cities and countryside, are the virus's natural hosts.

MSN

 

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I had heard India was still implementing laws, to clear the homeless from city streets, but I doubt they are now allocated to hotels instead, as Britain managed to do, temporarily (last time).

People now fear undetected transmission. People are panicking. Early symptoms are like flu, but if progressing - brain inflammation (which one is allowed to call an encephalitis), seizures and coma etc, so yes it was crucial to detect it fast and isolate cases.

Healthworkers are catching it. One nurse maybe caught it from treating a patient with a severe respiratory illness. The fruit bats are everywhere (in India). 100 people were quarantined and a hospital closed, already. The outbreaks had been sporadic for some years.

I think once local airports are galvanised then all the global airports must also be galvanised. I think it was California had become the 1st united state to rejoin the WHO now that the USA had its 1 year period of grace and is leaving the WHO, opted out of global pandemic programs

It will be very nice if we need not find out the hard way which governments were prepared and which are still making promotional movies instead. Maybe the British can rush out another vaccine to attenuate it for some, and maybe there is no aftermath for survivors.

I think its not air-bourne, but spread through contaminated food and body fluids. Everyone needs a home and every home needs a toilet. At least its not Ebola and I still have an income with a supply of water, food, fuel.