Scientists have given an alert against the lethal Nipah virus that the next pandemic might completely cause, they claim.
WUHAN, CHINA - APRIL 03: （CHINA OUT）Firefighters prepare to conduct disinfection at the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport on April 3, 2020 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Wuhan, the Chinese city hardest hit by the novel coronavirus outbreak, conducted a disinfection on the local airport as operations will soon resume on April 8 when the city lifts its travel restrictions.
In a previous Science Times article, British scientists reported that the Nipah virus has a fatality rate varying from 45% to 75%. The threat comes while the planet is already fighting COVID-19.
Likewise, the World Health Organisation (WHO) named the disease as one of 16 priority diseases that need to be studied because of its threat to trigger another global pandemic.
What is Nipah Virus?
The Nipah virus is a pathogenic disorder, indicating that it is spread from animals to humans, just like the coronavirus.
The virus may also be spread from person-to-person via infected food or directly.
In livestock, such as pigs, Nipah may also trigger severe reactions, resulting in significant economic losses for farmers across the world.
The Nipah virus, which comes from fruit bats and can be spread from animals to humans, was first identified in Malaysia in 1999, triggering extreme brain swelling, vomiting, seizures, and acute respiratory infection, as per the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Compared with a high fatality rate, the infection has a lengthy incubation time of 45 days, meaning it will propagate to populations until anyone becomes sick and could be screened for it.
How Humans May Catch the Disease
BBC said both Bangladesh and India had a Nipah outbreak. Experts linked the incidence with tainted date palm juice.
There were 11 separate outbreaks in Bangladesh from 2001 to 2011. Of 196 persons detected to have the infection, 150 of them succumbed to the disease.
According to the report, fruit bats carrying the virus will usually travel to date palm plantations to lick up the juice from the trees and urinate on the collecting pot as they feasted, contaminating the juice that servers would serve the next day to innocent local citizens.
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Experts caution that the COVID-19 pandemic that has now killed 2.5 million people could be only the beginning if we don't treat this seriously.
Signs and Symptoms
Express.co.uk said infection with Nipah Virus (NiV) would cause moderate to serious human illness, including brain swelling and possible death.
Usually, signs occur within four to 14 days of initial exposure to the infection.
Initially, the condition shows fever and headaches over three to 14 days and involves pulmonary disease symptoms, such as cough, sore throat, and trouble breathing.
It may be accompanied by a state of brain swelling (encephalitis) in which signs can involve drowsiness, disorientation, and mental distress that may develop progressively into a coma.
Early Symptoms:
- Coughing
- Difficulty Breathing
- Fever
- Headaches
- Overvomiting
- Sore throat
Significant symptoms which might follow:
- Convulsions
- Coma
- Cortex swelling
- Disorientation
Test Kits in Demand
The development of instruments that could diagnose the Nipah virus is now ongoing as far as test kits are concerned.
Facts.MR, a global research firm, claimed per BioSpace experts are already developing Nipah virus testing kits to resolve the infection's unexpected occurrences. Experts assured they would make the test kits available promptly in necessary regions where the infection has been shown to increase for prompt diagnosis of the virus.
In addition, scientists are concerned that the Nipah virus has a strong mutation rate, suggesting that it could respond to human pathogens and spread more quickly through South East Asian countries.
Dr. Rebecca Dutch, the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky and an expert in virus research, told the UK news source that Nipah is definitely triggering a modern pandemic.
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