WHO sees low risk of Nipah virus spreading beyond India
The risk of the deadly Nipah virus spreading from India is low, the World Health Organization said, adding that it did not recommend travel or trade restrictions following two infections reported by the South Asian country.
Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are among Asian countries that have tightened airport screening controls this week to guard against such spread after India confirmed infections.
“WHO considers the risk of the infection spreading further from these two cases is low,” the agency told Reuters in an email, adding that India has the capacity to contain such outbreaks.
“There is no evidence yet of increased human-to-human transmission,” he said, adding that he was coordinating with Indian health authorities.
But the possibility of greater exposure to the virus circulating in bat populations in some parts of India and neighboring Bangladesh has not been ruled out.
The virus, carried by animals such as fruit bats and pigs, can cause fever and encephalitis. The mortality rate ranges from 40 percent to 75 percent and there is no cure, but vaccines in development are still being tested.
It spreads to humans from infected bats or the fruit they infect, but person-to-person transmission is not easy as it usually requires prolonged contact with the infected.
Small outbreaks are not unusual, and virologists say the risk to the general population is low.
The source of the infection is not yet fully understood, WHO said. The lack of licensed vaccines or treatments classifies Nipah as a priority pathogen due to its high mortality rate and fears that it could mutate into a more contagious variant.
Two healthcare workers infected in India’s eastern state of West Bengal in late December were receiving hospital treatment, local officials said.
India regularly reports sporadic Nipah infections, which have been linked to dozens of deaths since it first emerged in 2018, especially in the southern state of Kerala, which is considered one of the world’s highest-risk areas for the virus.
The World Health Organization said the outbreak was the seventh documented in India and the third in West Bengal, with outbreaks in 2001 and 2007 in areas bordering Bangladesh and reporting outbreaks almost every year.
