08-07-2025
Teenage girl dies from ‘brain-swelling' Nipah virus considered the ‘next pandemic' – as officials detect a second case
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A TEENAGE girl has died from a brain-swelling bat virus which experts fear could be the 'next pandemic'.
The 18-year-old tested positive for Nipah virus, an extremely lethal isease and kills more two thirds of those infected.
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A patient is taken into Nipah isolation ward in Kerala, India, in July last year
Credit: Reuters
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Health officials in full protective gear walk inside an isolation ward in Kerala
Credit: AFP
It belongs to the same family as measles and, like measles, spreads easily between people and is highly contagious.
Health officials are now racing to trace hundreds of potential contacts, some of which are already in intensive care.
The young girl died in hospital in Kerala, South India on July 1, according an editorial in The Hindu.
Since then, a 38-year-old woman from Palakkad village, about 80 km (2.5 hours by car) from Malappuram, where the teenager fell ill, has also tested positive.
A total of 425 people across three districts have been identified as contacts of the two women, who could have come in contact at a social event.
Among them, 12 are receiving treatment, including five in intensive care, while results for many are still awaited.
The World Health Organization (WHO) lists Nipah as a virus with pandemic potential.
Earlier this year, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) included Nipah in its list of 24 diseases considered the greatest future threats to public health.
Niaph, which inspired the blockbuster film Contagion starring Gwyneth Paltrow, is a zoonotic virus. This means it can be transmitted from animals to humans.
Much like the virus in the film, which centered around a global pandemic, it attacks the brain, can spread from human-to-human and has a fatality rate as high as 75 per cent.
Evolutionary virologist Emilia Skirmuntt on fears Nipah virus could be the world's next pandemic
Of those who survive it, around 20 per cent are left with long-term neurological conditions, including personality changes or seizure disorders.
For comparison, estimates from John Hopkins University dashboard suggest the fatality rate of Covid is just over one per cent.
There's currently no approved vaccine to prevent Nipah virus infections and no treatment to cure it.
However, Oxford scientists have developed the first Nipah vaccine to enter human trials, with early tests now underway.
Kerala has experienced multiple outbreaks of the virus since it was first detected there in 2018, resulting in dozens of deaths across the state.
Other outbreaks have been reported in Bangladesh, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.
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The virus is transmitted from animals like fruit bats and pigs to humans
Credit: Barcroft Media
An investigation published by Reuters last year, found that Kerala - which is a tropical state and is witnessing rapid urbanisation and tree loss - had "ideal conditions for a virus like Nipah to emerge".
India's worst outbreak of the virus occurred in 2001 in the northwestern state of West Bengal when 45 out of 66 people confirmed to have had Nipah died.
Is Nipah virus threat to the UK?
By Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia
Nipah virus is a nasty disease.
Although everything is possible in the world of infectious diseases. The threat of a global Nipah virus pandemic is not high on the list of the things that keep we awake at night.
Firstly, the primary host species are Pteropodidae bats, fruit bats or a flying fox.
Humans usually catch the infection from an infected animal, either the fruit bats themselves or from intermediate animals such as pigs, Contaminated food can also be a cause.
The pigs catch the infection from the fruit bats. Pteropodidae bats are not found in Europe -see figure below.
Secondly, person to person transmission does occur but it is not very efficient.
The R-value is below 1.0, around 0.33, so you would not get sustained person-to-person transmission unless there was some pretty impressive evolution, not impossible but very unlikely.
I guess there could be a risk of introduction into the UK from contaminated food, probably meat illegally brought into the country.
However, any subsequent illnesses would not spread far.
Of course with climate change the distribution of species may change over the next century and who knows what the risk may be in 50 or 100 years from now.
Experts say that animals are living in closer proximity to humans due to habitat loss, which helps the virus jump from animals to humans and poses a risk for outbreaks.
Nipah is typically transmitted to humans from animals such as bats and pigs, through direct contact with bodily fluids like blood or saliva.
Humans can also pick the disease up by eating foods contaminated with urine or saliva from infected animals.
They can also pick it up through close contact with people who already have it - but these forms of transmission are much rarer.
People infected with the Nipah virus my not display any symptoms at all.
But many go on to develop acute respiratory infections, seizures and fatal brain swelling, called encephalitis.
Encephalitis and seizures only occur in severe cases and can progress to coma within 24 to 48 hours.
It typically takes between four days and two weeks for people to develop symptoms after being infected.
However, in some cases it has taken up to 45, WHO noted.
Extremely likely to see outbreaks
Scientists previously told The Sun that Nipah could 'absolutely be the cause of a new pandemic'.
Dr Rebecca Dutch, chair of the University of Kentucky, and a world a leader in the study of viruses, said that although there are no current Nipah outbreaks in the world, they occur periodically and it is 'extremely likely' we will see more.
She told us: 'Nipah is one of the viruses that could absolutely be the cause of a new pandemic. Several things about Nipah are very concerning.
'Many other viruses in that family (like measles) transmit well between people, so there is concern that a Nipah variant with increased transmission could arise.
'The mortality rate for this virus is between 45 per cent and 75 per cent depending on the outbreak – so this is much higher than Covid-19.
"Nipah has been shown to be transmitted through food, as well as via contact with human or animal excretions.
'The incubation period for Nipah can be quite long, and it can be unclear if transmission can occur during this time.'
Dr Jonathan Epstein, vice president for science and outreach at the EcoHealth Alliance, explained how they are tracking the Nipah virus and are worried about its potential.
He told The Sun: 'We know very little about the genetic variety of Nipah-related viruses in bats, and what we don't want to happen is for a strain to emerge that is more transmissible among people."
