Infographic – Deaths From Nipah Virus

Click on image for full-size view. (Statista)

23 Sept. 2023. Nipah virus is a rare but deadly infectious disease affecting south and southeast Asia, and since August the Kerala state in India recorded six Nipah cases leading to two deaths. The business research company Statista this week published a map showing known Nipah virus cases in India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia since 1998.

Nipah is a zoonotic disease, one that transmits from animals to humans. In Kerala, the source is believed to be fruit bats, but bats can also affect domestic and farm animals, such as pigs, that can pass the virus on to humans. According to the journal Nature, Nipah virus is spread among humans mainly through contact with bodily fluids, but infections can cause fever, vomiting, respiratory problems and brain inflammation, with deaths occurring in 40 to 75 percent of cases.

Nature reports authorities in Kerala closed some schools, offices, and public transportation and tested some 700 people so far for the disease. As reported in Science & Enterprise in Jan. 2021, Moderna Inc. is developing a messenger RNA vaccine for Nipah virus, with three early-stage clinical trials either completed or underway testing Nipah vaccines.

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