INTL Another China Cover-Up: Nipah Virus Kills 40%- 70% Infected

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India scrambles to contain potential outbreak of Nipah, a deadlier virus than COVID
Published: Sept. 8, 2021 at 1:46 a.m. ET
By
Lee Brown
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Animal Husbandry department and Forest officials deposit a bat into a container after catching it inside a well at Changaroth in Kozhikode in the Indian state of Kerala on May 21, 2018. A deadly virus carried mainly by fruit bats has killed at least three people in southern India, sparking a statewide health alert May 21. Eight other deaths in the state of Kerala are being investigated for possible links to the Nipah virus, which has a 70 percent mortality rate.
-/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

A 12-year-old boy has died in India of Nipah, a rare virus that is far deadlier than COVID-19 — and one that health officials have long feared could start a global pandemic
The unidentified boy died Sunday at a hospital in Kerala, the southern state already battling the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the hard-hit country, officials there said.
He had already visited two other hospitals before his death, putting him in contact with potentially hundreds of people — with up to 11 showing potential symptoms, NDTV reported.
Previous outbreaks of Nipah, or NiV, showed an estimated fatality rate of between 40% and 75%, according to the World Health Organization, making it far more deadly than the coronavirus.
“The virus has been shown to spread from person-to-person in these outbreaks, raising concerns about the potential for NiV to cause a global pandemic,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
More than 100 possible contacts of the boy have already been forced to isolate, with 48 of them being monitored in a hospital in Kerala.
Officials will also be carrying out door-to-door surveillance and identifying secondary contacts.
Health officials are urgently testing as many contacts as possible, with samples from the boy’s primary contacts — his family and health care workers — coming back negative.
“That these eight immediate contacts tested negative is a great relief,” said the state health minister, Veena George.
Nipah virus was first discovered in Malaysia and Singapore in 1999 — an outbreak of nearly 300 human cases, with more than 100 deaths, the CDC noted. More than 1 million pigs were killed to help control the outbreak, causing a “substantial economic impact.”
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Complicating its detection, key symptoms are similar to those of COVID-19, including fever, cough, sore throat and difficulty breathing, the CDC noted.
The infected often also suffer encephalitis, or swelling of the brain — and if they survive, often suffer persistent convulsions and even personality changes. The contagion can remain dormant in sufferers — who may get sick and possibly die from it “months and even years after exposure,” the CDC warned.
There is no vaccine, and the only treatment is supportive care to control complications and keep patients comfortable.
Kerala dealt with a previous outbreak of Nipah in 2018, when more than a dozen people died.
This time around, the concern is compounded by the fact that the state is already struggling to contain COVID-19.
Kerala on Monday registered nearly 20,000 COVID-19 infections — the vast majority of India’s daily total of 31,222.
Nipah, meanwhile, can be “challenging” to detect “due to the non-specific early symptoms of the illness,” even though “early detection and diagnosis are critical to increase chances of survival ” and “to prevent transmission to other people,” the CDC has said.
India Today warned its readers, “The nature of Nipah virus infection is such that if the outbreak spirals out of control, it could pose a bigger threat to public health than the coronavirus pandemic.”
With Post wires
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India scrambles to contain potential outbreak of Nipah, a deadlier virus than COVID

Previous outbreaks of Nipah, or NiV, showed an estimated fatality rate of between 40% and 75%, according to the World Health Organization, making it far more...
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What is Nipah, the deadly virus emerging in India alongside COVID-19?
Alexandra Mae Jones
Alexandra Mae JonesCTVNews.ca writer
@AlexandraMaeJ Contact
Published Wednesday, September 8, 2021 9:23AM EDT
A bat hangs from a branch of a tree

A bat hangs from a branch outside Brazil's state-run Fiocruz Institute at Pedra Branca state park, near Rio de Janeiro, on Nov. 17, 2020. (Silvia Izquierdo / AP)
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TORONTO -- A new outbreak of a deadly virus in India is making headlines — but it's not COVID-19.
Amid the rise of COVID-19 cases in India, health officials are on alert for cases of Nipah, a rare virus first identified in the late 1990s that kills at least 40 per cent of those it infects.
A 12-year-old boy died of Nipah virus in the southern Indian state of Kerala on Sunday, prompting officials to contact trace and isolate anyone who may have come into contact with him.
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But what is Nipah virus, and should we be worried about it in Canada?
WHEN DID IT FIRST EMERGE?
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nipah virus was first detected in 1999 in Malaysia and Singapore. This initial outbreak involved 300 human cases, but pigs were also affected. More than 100 people died, and more than one million pigs were killed in an effort to curb the spread of the disease.
Outbreaks have occurred in other parts of Asia since, mostly in Bangladesh and India. Bangladesh has had near-annual outbreaks since 2001, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Nipah is a zoonotic virus, meaning its initial transmission is to humans from animals, which in this case were fruit bats. The virus can also infect pigs that can then transfer the virus to humans.
During outbreaks, there has been person-to-person spread, which increases the risk of larger outbreaks. According to the WHO, it can also be spread through contaminated food.
During the initial outbreak in Malaysia, most patients contracted the virus through contact with infected pigs or their tissue. In other outbreaks in Bangladesh, scientists believe that consuming fruit products contaminated with fluids from infected fruit bats, such as raw date palm juice, caused the infections in humans.
Contact with infected humans' bodily fluids and excrement can also spread the virus directly between people. A lot of human-to-human spread of the disease has been among health care workers catching the virus while caring for patients.
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?
According to the WHO, Nipah virus can be difficult to diagnose due to some patients having few symptoms, and others having "nonspecific" symptoms.
Health Canada states that there can be a range of symptoms in those who are symptomatic, ranging from mild to severe.
Flu-like symptoms tend to emerge first, including fever, vomiting, headaches, sore throat and muscle pain. Afterwards, patients can experience more serious neurological symptoms as well, including dizziness, altered consciousness, and symptoms indicating a swelling of the brain.
"Brain swelling and seizures occur in severe cases, progressing to coma within 24 to 48 hours," Health Canada explains.
Health Canada advises people to visit a health-care professional immediately if they have travelled to an area where Nipah virus is present and believe they have symptoms or have come into contact with someone who is infected.
There is no vaccine or treatment for Nipah, but accessing supportive medical care as quickly as possible increases the chances for recovery.
HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO COVID-19?
Nipah virus appears to be significantly more deadly than COVID-19.
While the case fatality rate for COVID-19 — the confirmed cases versus confirmed deaths — has fluctuated wildly depending on countries and outbreaks, soaring to 17 per cent in China early in the pandemic, it currently stands at 1.7 per cent in Canada.
According to the WHO, the case fatality rate for Nipah virus is estimated to be 40 per cent to 75 per cent, a number that varies depending on "local capabilities for epidemiological surveillance and clinical management."
However, this should mean that it's harder for Nipah virus to spread as far as COVID-19 has. When a virus quickly kills most of those who contract it, that leaves little time for the virus to infect others and spread widely, making its circle of devastation smaller and more intense.
SHOULD CANADIANS BE WORRIED?
There are currently no cases of Nipah virus in Canada, and the only way it would get here would be if an infected person travelled here, or someone visited an area with an outbreak, became infected, and then travelled back to Canada.
With the world still wary of international travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the globe, it's unlikely that Nipah virus will make its way to Canada, although this emphasizes the need for travellers to be aware of where outbreaks are and travel health notices for issues beyond just COVID-19
In the long run, more research needs to be done on Nipah virus to develop treatments, WHO noted, adding that they'd flagged it in 2018 as a topic that needed more attention.
RELATED IMAGES

  • Nipah virus precautions
    An Indian boys wears a mask as a precautionary measure against the Nipah virus at the Government Medical College hospital in Kozhikode, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, on May 21, 2018. (AP)
  • Collecting blood samples from a goat
    Health workers collect blood samples from a goat to test for the Nipah virus after a 12-year-old boy died in Kozhikode, Kerala state, India, on Sept.7, 2021. (Shijith. K / AP)
www.ctvnews.ca

What is Nipah, the deadly virus emerging in India alongside COVID-19?

Amid the rise of COVID-19 cases in India, health officials are on alert for cases of Nipah, a rare virus first identified in the late 1990s that kills at least 40 per cent of those it infects.
www.ctvnews.ca www.ctvnews.ca
 
R

Rabbit

Has No Life - Lives on TB
The good news for many of us here is we are already rapidly reaching our use-by date, bad news for everyone else.

Kidding aside, I hope we all have the faith to stand in these times.
 
China Connection

China Connection

TB Fanatic
This is a good one, as it doesn't come with a vaccine,

It is so bad on its own, that they figure it doesn't need a vaccine.

So one can enjoy the disease without having a boaster needle to keep it going...
 
ShadowMan

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
During my 22 year military career I traveled in a lot of places you would NEVER want to visit. If you knew the "CLASSIFIED" disease vector reports that I saw you'd never leave your house!! There is shitte out there that makes you wonder if we're really part of this planet. What really pisses me off about Fauci is that he and his ilk GO LOOKING FOR THIS CRAP!! AND THEN MAKE 'EM STRONGER!!

What the hell is wrong with these people?!?!?!?!? :bhd:

We are SOOOOO spoiled here in the States and it's also the real reason that we need to keep illegal foreigners out of this country until they are totally medically screened.
 
China Connection

China Connection

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Nipah virus could cause another deadly pandemic, warns the inventor of AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine
2018- A deadly virus carried by fruit bats has killed at least five people in southern India.

2018- A deadly virus carried by fruit bats has killed at least five people in southern India. - Copyright File BIJU BORO/AFP

By Pascale Davies • Updated: 15/10/2021 - 14:01

As the world continues to grapple with COVID-19, there is another virus that is one of the next pandemic threats, warns a scientist who is one of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine inventors.
It goes by the name of the Nipah virus and there is currently no treatment or vaccine.
“If we had a delta type of Nipah virus, we would suddenly have a highly transmissible virus with a 50 per cent mortality rate,” Dame Sarah Gilbert said during an event at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature in the United Kingdom on Thursday.


So, what is the Nipah virus and should we be worried?
The Nipah virus is not new and has been lurking for years. In 1999, the virus arrived in central Malaysia after it found a host in bats, who then stopped over to eat from fruit trees that hung over pig farms.
The pigs ate the leftovers from the bats and the virus passed through the pigs to the humans that worked with them.
How is it transmitted?
Transmission is thought to have occurred via unprotected exposure to secretions from the pigs, or unprotected contact with the tissue of a sick animal.

About 105 Malaysians died within eight months after contracting the virus after suffering comas, fevers and brain inflammation. Nipah killed about 40 per cent of those infected.
BIJU BORO/AFP
Bats take rest on trees in Guwahati on May 23, 2018. A deadly virus carried by fruit bats has killed at least five people in southern IndiaBIJU BORO/AFP
Nipah virus can be transmitted to humans from animals as well as by contaminated foods and human-to-human contact.
What is the threat today?
Nipah now erupts annually in Bangladesh and also emerges periodically in eastern India. In September, a 12-year-old boy died after contracting the virus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says 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.
According to the WHO, countries with certain bat species may also be at risk, including Cambodia, Ghana, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Philippines, and Thailand.
AFP
Health officials in full protective gear walk inside an isolation ward of Ernakulam Medical College in Kochi in the Indian southwestern state of Kerala on June 6, 2019.AFP
Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are the natural host of the Nipah virus.
Human-to-human transmission of the Nipah virus has also been reported among family and caregivers of infected patients.
From 2001 to 2008, around half of reported cases in Bangladesh were due to human-to-human transmission through providing care to infected patients.
How deadly is the virus?
The fatality rate in reported cases is estimated at between 40 per cent and 75 per cent, according to the WHO.
Humans can develop asymptomatic infections but symptoms can range from mild to severe respiratory infection, and fatal encephalitis (brain inflammation).
Infected people initially develop symptoms including fever, headaches, muscle pain, 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. Encephalitis and seizures occur in severe cases and can progress into a coma.
There is currently no treatment or vaccine for Nipah for humans or animals. The main treatment for humans is supportive care.
www.euronews.com

Nipah virus could cause a deadly COVID-scale pandemic. But what is it?

The Nipah virus has a 40 per cent to 75 per cent mortality rate and there is no treatment or vaccine.
www.euronews.com www.euronews.com
 
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Why The World Should Be More Than A Bit Worried About India's Nipah Virus Outbreak
September 12, 20218:56 AM ET
KAMALA THIAGARAJAN
gettyimages-1339065898_custom-38c2f06f556d081836faed53519c44411060cf54-s1100-c50.jpg


A road blockade set up during the Nipah virus outbreak in the southern Indian state of Kerala this month.
C.K. Thanseer/DeFodi Images via Getty Images
In 2018, we reported on how the southern Indian state of Kerala beat back the deadly Nipah virus. Local filmmakers and musicians even made a celebratory music video about it. Three years later, the state is faced with yet a new case of Nipah — its third outbreak since 2018 — and it couldn't have come at a worse time. Kerala, known for its palm-lined beaches on the Arabian Sea, is still reeling with a caseload of 4 million coronavirus infections since the pandemic began.
The Nipah virus is making news again after tragic reports that a 12-year-old boy died from the virus on Sept. 5 in Kerala's Kozhikode district. He had been admitted to a private hospital after running a high fever and showing symptoms of encephalitis — swelling of the brain.
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While figuring out how to prevent and treat Nipah virus infection is very much a work in progress, there have been advances.
Nonetheless, Nipah remains a concern, not just in India but for the entire planet. The World Health Organization classifies it as a "virus of concern" for future epidemics because "each year it spills over from its animal reservoir into humans," says Dr. Stephen Luby, a professor of infectious disease at Stanford University. And when humans are infected, it can be transmitted from person to person.
But the virus is not as transmissible as some other viruses. "There are occasional Nipah superspreaders who infect a lot of people," says Luby. "But the average transmission rate is less than one person per infection.
"However, each time a person is infected, the virus is in an environment that selects for human adaptation and transmissibility. The risk is that a new strain that is more efficiently transmitted person to person could generate a devastating outbreak. Indeed, since 70% of people who are infected with Nipah virus die, such a strain could represent the worst pandemic humanity has ever faced."
That's why, he says, it's important to "continue to invest in strategies to reduce the risk of spillover and to develop countermeasures across a range of high-risk pathogens."
Still a mysterious virus
Following the boy's death, public health authorities swung into action, contact-tracing friends, family members and health workers. They identified and isolated 251 people, including 30 close family members. Eleven samples from those in close contact with the boy were sent for testing, and on Sept. 8, they were negative. But how this child contracted Nipah is still unclear.
The Death Of A 12-Year-Old Boy Sparks Worries Of A Nipah Virus Outbreak In India
ASIA
The Death Of A 12-Year-Old Boy Sparks Worries Of A Nipah Virus Outbreak In India
"It's really difficult to establish the cause of the boy's illness," says Dr. Thekkumkara Surendran Anish, associate professor of community medicine at the Government Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram. "The infected patient was just too sick to tell us anything about what he ate or did. That's why it's all speculation."
In the two strains of Nipah encountered so far — originating in Malaysia in 1999 and later in Bangladesh — pigs and fruit bats are believed to have been the intermediary hosts. "One plausible theory is that those who've been infected [in Kerala] ate food or fruit contaminated with bat saliva or excreta," says Anish.
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"We have a very clear understanding of how Nipah virus moves from fruit bats into people," says Luby. "Bats are attracted to raw date palm sap that is harvested during the wintertime. When people drink raw date palm sap that has been contaminated by bats, they are at risk of contracting Nipah." The World Health Organization calls the drink a "likely source" of outbreaks in humans in India and Bangladesh.
When reports emerged that the boy in Kerala could have possibly contracted Nipah from eating rambutan — a tropical fruit with thick red spines resembling lychee that grew around his home — sales of the fruit plunged in Kerala. But the fear that the fruit was the cause of the disease is pure speculation and without evidence, experts say.
Survival rates are low
While it is possible to recover, the virus has a high fatality rate.
In 2018, when Nipah emerged for the first time in Kerala, only two of the 19 infected people survived. When it was detected again in 2019, a 23-year-old man was infected, but swift isolation ensured the virus did not spread to others in his community. The patient survived.
"[With] COVID, you are most infectious before the symptoms set in," says Anish. "Once they do, your ability to infect other people wanes. But that's not the case with Nipah. When the symptoms set in, you start spreading the virus." In areas more prone to Nipah infections (Bangladesh, Malaysia, India and Singapore), being aware of this can help, he says.
Since the identification of the case this year, COVID-19 precautions have helped control the spread of Nipah in Kerala, says Dr. K. Puthiyaveettil Aravindan, a former professor of pathology at the Government Medical College, Kozhikode: "Hospital workers were already kitted out in full protective equipment. People were masked." Since the virus is spread human to human through bodily fluids, physical distancing and masking helped.
Hopes for treatment and a vaccine
With all the concerns about Nipah, efforts to develop a vaccine are ongoing. "There are several promising Nipah virus [vaccine] candidates that have demonstrated high efficacy in animals," says Luby. In addition, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations is supporting human trials of multiple vaccine candidates.
One study on vaccines, a preprint, focused on the effectiveness of ChAdOx1 — a multipurpose vaccine vector that can be customized to carry DNA from a wide variety of pathogens. In a trial on African green monkeys, it proved effective when tailored against the Nipah virus.
While vaccine candidates are still in clinical trials, there's also a nonpatented drug called M 102.4 developed by Christopher C. Broder, a professor of immunology and microbiology at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Maryland. It's a monoclonal antibody that can attach to proteins in a virus and render it ineffective.
"Suppose you get a massive dose of a virus in your body. It's a matter of time before the pathological process begins and it damages your cells," says Anish. "You don't have time to depend on the immune reaction generated by a vaccine at that point. In this narrow window [before you develop symptoms], you can use an agent that can neutralize the virus."
During Kerala's 2018 outbreak, M 102.4 was flown in from Queensland, Australia, for use on an emergency basis. At the time, it had not been tested on humans. Since then, initial tests in humans have been successful. In a study published by The Lancet Infectious Diseases, phase I clinical trials in humans have shown that the drug can neutralize Nipah.
In case of any major outbreak, health authorities in Kerala and elsewhere now can use the antibody to get it under control, says Aravindan.
A virus on the move
It's likely that other Indian states may be affected too. "Kerala can't be the only hot spot," says Aravindan. "It's possible that the health system in other states may not be catching these infections at all."
He also has concerns about future spread. Genetic changes in the virus are likely, making hosts out of more species of bats and making the virus more transmissible among humans, he says. He adds that Nipah could emerge as a global problem similar to COVID-19 due to international trade, global travel and climate change that causes bats to seek new habitats.
For those reasons, he says, it's imperative "to analyze which species [of bats] could be infected, the places they're located" and whether there might be additional intermediary host animals.
For now, the Nipah virus scare in Kerala seems to be under control. But "as long as there's a lot we don't know, the possibility of an epidemic can't be ruled out," Anish says.
Kamala Thiagarajan is a freelance journalist based in Madurai, India, who has written for The International New York Times, BBC Travel and Forbes India. You can follow her on Twitter: @Kamal_t.

www.npr.org

Why The World Should Be More Than A Bit Worried About India's Nipah Virus Outbreak

A case of the virus, which claimed a 12-year-old boy's life, has sparked fears of a new outbreak in India. Researchers fear that the deadly disease has the potential to cause global outbreaks as well.
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