By akademiotoelektronik, 21/09/2022

Risk of epidemic of the dangerous Nipah virus: India on alert after the death of a 12 -year -old child

Towards a new epidemic ""potential""...The Nipah virus seriously worries the health authorities in India who try to contain the virus in the region where he manifested himself, namely in Kerala, in the south of the country.The province was placed on alert.

For the moment, he had only one known victim, but caution is.Indeed, from a mortality rate above 70 %, this virus is according to the World Health Organization (WHO) an emerging infectious agent likely to trigger severe epidemics in the future if it were to evolveTo gain transmissibility.

This has led WHO to make a research priority in order to prevent health crises, as reported by the Pasteur Institute.

Contain the epidemic in the province of Kerala

Besides, the Minister of Health of the Kerala State, Veena George explained that ""for the moment, there is no reason to panic.But we must be cautious "", as reported by India Today.

""We decided to train teams to manage the situation.The search for contacts and other measures have already been launched.We have affected special agents.""

A deceased child and two other confirmed cases

On September 3, a 12 -year -old boy has symptoms of encephalitis (brain infection) and myocarditis.He is hospitalized.Very quickly, doctors suspect infection in nipah virus.His condition quickly deteriorated and the child died 48 hours after his admission on September 5.The sample deducted from the child has returned positive to the Nipah virus, after its analysis by the National Institute of Virology, as reported by CBS.

Two other people, two health workers, were identified with symptoms of infection by the Nipah virus, as the Indian government said.Eiles would be part of the 20 high -risk contacts of the deceased boy.He would have come into contact with a total of 188 people.

A virus that is transmitted via animals

The Nipah virus is a virus that is transmitted from animals to humans and more precisely through the saliva of the Roussette, a frugivore bat.Thereafter, it mainly affects pigs, dogs, but also horses...to humans.

Between humans, the virus spreads from one person to another by the secretions of infected people, but the virus is not very contagious for the moment between humans.However in the event of infection, the virus can lead to death.This is what happened for the 12 -year -old boy.

Symptoms

There may be an infection resulting without symptoms, but otherwise it is fever, cough, migraine, vomiting and respiratory problems between 4 and 14 days after being exposed.

In the event of acute breathing difficulties or even in case of encephalitis, the infection is fatal.With a mortality rate greater than 70 %

Office of infections already observed

Initially, the virus was identified in 1998, in Malaysia with pigs as intermediate hosts: many farms were thus slaughtered to stem the epidemic at the time.More than 300 people have been infected and more than a hundred died.

Previous epidemics have shown that it can spread fairly quickly in humans, as Forbes points out.In Bangladesh, cases are noted each year.And in 2019, in Kerala, 17 people died as the WHO specifies.

No treatment

Given the biological danger it represents, the Nipah virus can only be manipulated in a P4 laboratory.

No treatment or vaccine exists to date.

Patients should be isolated to avoid physical contact, but then apart from prevention and removal of foodstuffs with bats, researchers have not yet found a remedy.