India has restricted public gatherings and closed some schools in the southern state of Kerala after two people died from Nipah, a bat or pig virus that causes fatal fever, local authorities announced Thursday.
There is still no vaccine against the virus, which has a mortality rate of 40 to 75 percent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Symptoms include severe fever, vomiting and respiratory infections, but severe cases can be accompanied by convulsions and encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain, and result in coma.
In addition to the two deaths, three other people tested positive and more than 700 people, including 153 health workers who came into contact with infected people, are under observation, health authorities said.
At least four people were hospitalized, including the nine-year-old son of one of the victims.
Nipah is initially transmitted by animals such as fruit bats or pigs, but it is also transmitted from person to person, the WHO explains.
The incubation period – the time from infection to the onset of symptoms – ranges from four to 14 days, but can be as long as 45 days, according to the WHO.
In 2018, at least 17 people died in Kerala after being infected with the virus.
The virus was first identified in 1998 after it spread among pig farmers in Malaysia. In India, the first Nipah outbreak was reported in the state of West Bengal in 2001.
The WHO lists Nipah as one of its priority diseases that “represent the greatest risk to public health due to its epidemic potential” and for which “countermeasures do not exist or are insufficient.”
Source: DN
