Nipha virus outbreak all over the world in 2023 : What is nipha virus?
Nipha virus outbreak all over the world in 2023 . Nipha virus is a deadly virus that can spread from animals to humans. And listed in the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) terrestrial animal health code and must be reported to the Woah .hendra virus is not yet a waitlisted reportable disease its first discovery in 1999, when related outbreaks were reported in pigs and people in Malaysia and Singapore. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fruit bats are natural animal hosts for the Nipah virus, but they can cause illness in pigs and humans. This outbreak resulted in nearly 300 human cases and more than 1000 deaths and caused a substantial economic impact as more than 1 million pigs were killed to help control the outbreak. Nipha is a member of the family Paramyxoviridae, genus Henipavirus known to be carried by bats, bat species were quickly singled out for investigation, and flying foxes were subsequently identified as the reservoir. Infected fruit bats can spread the disease to people or other animals, such as pigs and other animals like goats, horses, dogs, or cats. People can become infected if they have close contact with an infected animal or its fluids such as saliva or urine; this initial spread from an animal to a person is known as a spillover event.
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Once it spreads to people, person-to-person spread of nipha can also occur. It can cause severe symptoms, including death. There is no medication or vaccine for it. It’s more common in Asia, primarily Bangladesh and India. The patient usually presents with fever, encephalitis, or respiratory involvement with or without thrombocytopenia, leucopenia, and transmits. Diagnosis can be confirmed by isolation and nucleic acid and amplification in the acute phase or antibody detection during the convalescent phase. The recent outbreak of the Nipah virus in Kerala in May 2018 brought this emerging re emerging virus into the spotlight again. And the case fatality rate for NIV infection is high ranging from 40% to 75%.
Symptoms of Nipha virus:
The symptoms of NiV infection are known as a dormant or latent infection) range from mild to severe; with death occurring in 40%–70% of those infected in documented outbreaks between 1998 and 2018. Symptoms appear in 4-14 days following exposure to the virus. The illness initially presents as 3-14 days of fever and headache and often includes signs of respiratory illness cough sore throat, difficulty breathing, vomiting disorientation, drowsiness or confusion, seizures, coma, brain swelling (encephalitis), which can rapidly progress to coma within 24-48 hours.
Treatment of Nipha virus:
First stages of infection, a healthcare provider can perform a real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test to confirm the nipha virus. This test uses the following bodily fluids to diagnose the condition (nasal or throat swabs, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF, urine samples, blood samples ). Ribavirin, m102.4 monoclonal antibody, and favipiravir are the only anti-viral with some activity against the Nipah virus. Standard precautions, hand hygiene, and personal protective equipment are the cornerstone of comprehensive infection prevention and control strategy. (drinking lots of water, getting plenty of rest, taking acetaminophen or ibuprofen, using medications to control; nausea or vomiting, using inhalers or nebulizers to improve breathing difficulties, taking ant seizer medications to control nausea or vomiting, using inhalers or nebulizers to improve breathing difficulties taking ant seizure medications if you experience a seizure, researchers are studying using monoclonal antibody treatment for nipah virus.
Prevention from Nipha virus:
If you are in or travel to an area where the nipha virus occurs, you should take the following precautions to avoid the virus, wash your hands frequently, avoid any contact with sick pigs or bats, and clean and disinfect pig farms. Animals with the virus should go into quarantine correctly, avoid trees or bushes where bats are known to rest or sleep and avoid eating or drinking things that may be contaminated, such as palm sap or fruit. If you collect palm sap, boil it first with bat bites or fruit that has touched the ground, avoid contact with the saliva, blood, or other bodily fluids of a person with the virus, and isolation or full coverage gowns that protect against bodily fluids, medical gloves, eye protection like safety glasses or goggles, medical or surgical masks. One of the most important biosecurity measures for affected areas is to decrease the likelihood of the bat reservoir coming into contact with pig production facilities. In hospitals and other healthcare centers, healthcare providers should practice standard infection control protocols. The EPA (ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AGENCY) recommends using q list disinfectants to disinfect and sanitize all clinical surfaces. Research into the development of vaccines has been ongoing in Australia and France.
Geographically the Nipah virus:
Nipha virus infection outbreaks in pigs in Malaysia and Singapore and human disease in Malaysia, Singapore, India, and Bangladesh. Evidence of the virus without clinical disease has also been found in fruit bats in Cambodia, Thailand, and Madagascar.
Nipha virus in Pakistan:
Some cases show the symptoms of the Nipha virus in Pakistan (Sindh) but noted that Sindh has not recorded any permanent patients of Niphs virus. In neighboring India where the virus has already claimed over 100 lives and infected more than 300 people, there are worries that the infection rate will continue to rise.