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Nipah Malaysia
About Nipah Malaysia
Nipah virus was first identified in 1998 during an outbreak in Malaysia that killed 105 of 265 infected people, a case fatality rate of 40 percent. The virus spread from fruit bats Pteropus to pigs and then to pig farmers. Symptoms included encephalitis and respiratory distress. Over 1 million pigs were culled to contain the outbreak, devastating the Malaysian pork industry. The culling operation took months to complete. Nipah virus was named after the village of Sungai Nipah where it was first isolated. Subsequent outbreaks have occurred almost annually in Bangladesh and India. In Bangladesh, the virus spreads directly from bats to humans through consumption of date palm sap contaminated by bat saliva. Person to person transmission has been documented in Bangladesh and India. Nipah is classified as a WHO priority pathogen with pandemic potential. The fictional virus in the 2011 film Contagion was modelled partly on Nipah virus. There is no licensed Nipah vaccine.
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