Two Nipah infections involving health workers in India have triggered heightened screening across Southeast Asia as authorities move to prevent the high fatality virus from spreading beyond the country.
India confirmed two cases in West Bengal in late December. Both patients are health workers who remain under treatment in hospital. Officials have traced 196 contacts linked to the infections, with all testing negative. The health ministry dismissed circulating figures as speculative and said enhanced surveillance and field work supported rapid containment.
Experts said such small scale outbreaks are not unusual and that the wider public risk remains low. Several vaccine candidates are being tested but none are licensed. Efstathios Giotis, lecturer in molecular virology at the University of Essex, said there was no evidence of a broader threat at this stage.
Reports from India prompted immediate responses in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, alongside alerts in Nepal and China. Nipah is carried by fruit bats and animals such as pigs and can cause brain inflammation and respiratory distress. Fatality can reach 40% to 75%. Human transmission is possible but usually requires close and prolonged contact.
Singapore will introduce temperature screening for arrivals from affected areas in India and increase monitoring of newly arrived migrant workers from South Asia. Hong Kong airport authorities said they were facilitating enhanced gate side checks for passengers travelling from India.
Thailand has designated specific parking bays for aircraft arriving from areas with confirmed infections and requires health declarations from passengers. Malaysia strengthened screening at ports of entry for travellers from countries considered at risk. Nepal said it was on high alert at border crossings. China reported no cases but warned about possible imported infections.
Nipah is a rare but severe infection that spreads mainly from fruit bats to humans. It can be asymptomatic, but the WHO says the fatality rate can reach 40% to 75%. Human transmission occurs but is limited and usually linked to close and prolonged contact. No licensed vaccines or treatments exist.
The virus was first identified in Malaysia in 1999. Small outbreaks have since been reported almost every year, mostly in Bangladesh, with India recording sporadic cases. CEPI says 750 infections and 415 deaths have been logged globally.
Most infections stem from contaminated fruit or fruit products exposed to bat saliva or urine, while earlier outbreaks involved contact with sick pigs. Transmission between people has been found among families and caregivers.
Symptoms begin with fever, headaches and muscle pain before some patients develop encephalitis or severe respiratory distress. Seizures and coma can follow in advanced cases. Most people recover fully, though some face long term neurological effects.
Scientists say Nipah remains a regional health concern but has not shown signs of becoming easily transmissible among humans. A vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University is now in phase II trials in Bangladesh with CEPI funding.
Iran has rejected claims it has been weakened, vowing instead “more crushing” attacks against the United States and ...
Iran has strongly condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to bomb the country “back to the Stone A...
In a highly unusual move highlighting shifting narcotics diplomacy, the U.S. has handed over a Chinese fugitive accus...
International law experts from across the U.S., including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, have signed an open letter saying the strikes on Iran may amo...
The global commodities market is facing a severe structural supply shock after a series of coordinated military strikes in the Middle East de...
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum says around 25 kilometres of the TAPI gas pipeline have been laid in Herat province, as work continues on one of the region’s largest energy projects.
Two months after Indian negotiators worked in January to secure relief from punitive U.S. tariffs on the country’s exports and New Delhi moved to cut back its purchases of Russian crude oil, India and Russia are stepping up their energy ties once again, according to Reuters.
The real power of the Strait of Hormuz lies not in closing it, but in the threat of closure.
At least 10 people have died after a fire broke out at a hospital trauma unit in eastern India on Monday (16 March). The victims, who were all patients, were being moved to safer areas away from the blaze when they died, officials said.
Fears of wider escalation grow despite President Donald Trump saying U.S. strikes on Iran could end within weeks. Meanwhile missile attacks, tanker incidents and rising casualties across Israel, Lebanon and the Gulf heighten risks to regional stability and energy routes.
There are fears of an oil spill after a drone strike hit a Kuwaiti oil tanker near Dubai on Tuesday, while U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran reportedly killed at least two people. A loud explosion was heard in Beirut in southern Lebanon early Wednesday, as oil prices climbed above $100 a barrel.
Four astronauts blasted off from Florida on Wednesday on NASA's Artemis II mission, a high-stakes voyage around the moon that marks the United States' boldest step yet toward returning humans to the lunar surface later this decade in a race with China.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck in Indonesia's Northern Molucca Sea on Thursday, killing one person, damaging some buildings and triggering tsunami waves, authorities and witnesses said.
President Donald Trump staunchly defended his handling of the month-old U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in a prime-time address on Wednesday, saying the U.S. military was nearing completion of its mission while also reinforcing his threats to bomb the Islamic Republic back to the Stone Age.
Austria’s government on Friday approved plans to introduce a nationwide ban on social media use for children under the age of 14, alongside reforms to upper secondary school curricula aimed at boosting media literacy and Artificial Intelligence (AI) education from the 2027/28 academic year.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said that as of Wednesday evening, it has identified six new cases of meningococcal disease in Kent, bringing the total of confirmed or suspected cases to at least 27.
The Scottish Parliament has voted against legalising assisted dying, ending a years-long campaign to make Scotland the first part of the UK to allow the practice.
The war in the Middle East is beginning to disrupt the flow of critical medicines to Gulf countries, raising concerns about the supply of cancer treatments and other temperature-sensitive drugs, according to pharmaceutical industry executives.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released $2m in emergency funding to support health responses in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria as escalating regional conflict strains hospitals, raises displacement and increases pressure on already fragile health systems.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment