“Nipah Virus (NiV) is a dangerous virus that can spread from bats or infected animals to humans, and sometimes between people through close contact. Symptoms start with fever, headache, and muscle pain, but can quickly lead to serious brain complications. There’s no vaccine or specific treatment yet, so the best protection is prevention: avoid contact with bats or sick animals, practice good hygiene, and isolate anyone suspected of infection.”
The Health Ministry of Cambodia published new directives on emergent cases of Nipah’s Virus (NiV). Although no transmission to humans has been recorded here, those preventive measures have to be noted and understood because the fatality of the virus is about 40% to 70% for humans, depending on the quality of health care and the stage where the disease is detected.
What is the Nipah Virus ?
NiV is from the Paramyxoviridae’s family, genus Henipavirus. It’s a zoonotic virus that spreads primarily through bat’s saliva, urine and blood. The transmission to other animals and/or humans occurs by eating infected fruits contaminated by the bats, drinking raw contaminated date palm sap, or having close contact with infected pigs (amplifying host) or infected people.
How does it spread ?
Animal to Human : contaminated fruit or raw date palm sap, contact with infected pigs.
Human to Human : close contact with body fluids (saliva, respiratory secretions, urine, blood), respiratory droplets during close care.
Important thing to know : for a Human to Human transmission, the virus needs a close and prolonged contact.
What are Nipah’s Symptoms ?
Symptoms usually appear 4 to 14 days after exposure. It can start with intense headache, fever, muscle pain, nausea and/or vomiting, and throat pain. If it’s not detected at this point, NiV can lead to serious symptoms like : confusion, seizures, paralysis or even acute encephalitis (brain swelling). Death can happen in the next 24 to 48 hours after the severe neurological symptoms.
For survivors of the most dangerous neurological symptoms, it can lead to long term problems, like memory loss or mood swing.
Is there a treatment, or a vaccine ?
As of today, there are no licensed specific treatments or vaccines existing. To cure NiV doctors focus on anti-viral and on symptoms based treatment (airway/ventilation, seizure control, organ support…).
The best treatment now is prevention : avoid any contact with bats and sick animals, wear protective gear when taking care of livestock (gloves, mask, covering clothes), carefully wash and peel the fruits, and finally apply hygienic protocol when going to the clinic.
When there is a suspicious case, isolation while waiting for a health professional to detect if it’s Nipah’s Virus is the thing to do.
