Region on watch as India declares Nipah virus outbreak contained

Several Asian countries person introduced screening measures for arrivals from India, arsenic New Delhi seeks to dampen alarm.

Seeking to dampen alarm successful the region, Indian officials person declared that an outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus has been contained.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said precocious connected Tuesday that it has ensured “timely containment” arsenic it confirmed 2 cases successful West Bengal state. Several Asian countries person introduced screening procedures for travellers arriving from India.

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The ministry said 196 contacts linked to the confirmed cases had been “identified, traced, monitored, and tested”, with each tests for the microorganism negative. It said the connection was intended to clarify “speculative and incorrect figures” successful the media.

“The concern is nether changeless monitoring, and each indispensable nationalist wellness measures are successful place,” it said, adding that “enhanced surveillance, laboratory testing, and tract investigations” had been undertaken.

The zoonotic Nipah virus, archetypal identified during a 1990s outbreak successful Malaysia, spreads done fruit bats, pigs and human-to-human contact.

There is nary vaccine to dainty the virus, which tin origin raging fevers, convulsions and vomiting. The lone attraction is supportive attraction to power complications and support patients comfortable.

The microorganism has an estimated decease complaint of betwixt 40-75 percent, according to the World Health Organization, making it acold much deadly than the coronavirus.

As India sought to assuage determination concerns, a fig of Asian countries announced measures astatine airports and onshore crossings.

China said it was strengthening illness prevention measures successful borderline areas. State media reported that wellness authorities had begun hazard assessments and peculiar grooming for aesculapian staff.

Indonesia and Thailand accrued screening astatine large airports, with wellness declarations, somesthesia checks and ocular monitoring for arriving passengers.

Myanmar’s Ministry of Health advised against nonessential question to West Bengal and said fever surveillance introduced during the coronavirus pandemic astatine airports has been intensified.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Health connected Tuesday directed section authorities to summation monitoring astatine borderline crossings, wellness facilities and communities, according to authorities media.

Similarly, Malaysia’s Ministry of Health said it was introducing wellness screening astatine planetary ports of entry.

The first Nipah infection to impact humans was recorded successful 1998, erstwhile pig farmers and butchers from Malaysia and Singapore contracted the microorganism from infected pigs, resulting successful much than 100 deaths.

Since then, determination person been outbreaks successful Bangladesh, the Philippines and India. The Indian authorities of Kerala has reported Nipah cases astir each twelvemonth since 2018.