Xinhua News Agency reported that a Nipah virus outbreak recently occurred in the Indian state of West Bengal. Most of the infected are in the Kolkata area, with one patient in critical condition and hundreds of people quarantined.
The World Health Organization defines Nipah virus as a zoonotic and human-to-human transmissible disease that can be fatal. The primary carrier of the disease is fruit bats.
The virus can be transmitted to humans through contaminated food or directly from person to person, with a mortality rate between 40% and 75%. Currently, there is no specific vaccine or effective treatment for this disease.
In 1998-1999, a Nipah virus outbreak in Malaysia and Singapore resulted in over a hundred deaths and the culling of more than one million pigs. The disease subsequently spread to India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.