A Rare Virus Without a Cure Has Emerged in India And Is Killing People

[Judi Lynn]

It has the potential to cause a deadly pandemic.


KEVIN LORIA, BUSINESS INSIDER
22 MAY 2018

At least nine people in southern India have died in cases linked to an outbreak of the rare and extremely deadly Nipah virus, according to a report by the BBC.

Nipah is considered a newly emerging deadly virus – scientists only found out that it could jump from bats to other species, including humans, within the past 20 years.

The disease is currently incurable and can be transmitted from person to person. It has killed between 40 percent and 75 percent of infected people in most outbreaks.

These statistics indicate that Nipah has the potential to cause a deadly pandemic, which is why the World Health Organisation lists Nipah as an urgent research priority, alongside diseases like Ebola and SARS.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/nipah-virus-has-emerged-deadly-new-outbreak-india-killing-nine-people

[NeoGreen]

1. Concerning factoids...

...

Hendra virus emerged in Australia and since 1994 there have been 7 human infections with 4 case fatalities. Nipah virus first appeared in Malaysia and subsequent outbreaks have occurred in Bangladesh and India. In total, there have been an estimated 582 human cases of Nipah virus and of these, 54% were fatal. Their broad species tropism and ability to cause fatal respiratory and/or neurologic disease in humans and animals make them important transboundary biological threats.

(snip)

There have been an estimated 582 cases of Nipah virus infection with 315 human fatalities (Anonymous, 2013c; Luby and Gurley, 2012; Luby et al., 2009; Pallister et al., 2011a)

(snip)

Since their discovery, both Hendra virus and Nipah virus have continued to repeatedly cause spillover events into animals and/or people.

(snip)

Nipah viruses possess an exceptionally broad species tropism and both natural and experimental infections have demonstrated their capacity to cause disease which can often be fatal in horses, pigs, cats, dogs, ferrets, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, and humans, spanning 6 mammalian Orders.

(snip)

direct transmission of Nipah virus from bats to humans and significant human-to-human transmission have also been documented

A treatment for and vaccine against the deadly Hendra and Nipah viruses
Antiviral Research 100 (2013) 8-13
Article history:
Received 29 April 2013
Revised 19 June 2013
Accepted 20 June 2013
Available online 6 July 2013

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166354213001691?via%3Dihub

[airplaneman]

2. Fucking bats man - again. n/t.