 "Nipah virus kills two in Kerala: Why does disease plague state?")
Two people in Kerala have died of the dreaded Nipah virus. The news was confirmed by Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday. Mandaviya said the Centre has sent a team of experts to Kerala to take stock of the situation and assist the state government. Source said samples of four other persons from Kerala have been sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune to test for the deadly virus. But what is the Nipah virus? What are its symptoms? And why is Kerala so vulnerable? Let’s take a closer look: What is it? As per the World Health Organisation, the Nipah virus (NiV) is a zoonotic infection – that is transmitted from animals to humans. Fruit bats from the Pteropodidae family – also called flying foxes – are the natural host of Nipah virus.
It was first discovered in 1999 in Malaysia amidst an outbreak in pig farmers.
This happened after the pigs on a farm ate fruit contaminated by bats. Initially unalarmed, the farm sold piglets to other farms and sent mature pigs for slaughter. Soon, some of the farm workers and the drivers who transported the animals fell sick. Slaughterhouse workers also fell ill. Scientists discovered the virus after analysing the spinal fluid of a victim from the town of Kampung Sungai Nipah. Kaw Bing Chua, a Malaysian virologist, identified the pathogen and later named it Nipah after the village. The Malaysian government soon after ordered the slaughter of a million pigs, ending the outbreak that infected nearly 300 people and killed over than 100. Symptoms and treatment As per the WHO, the Nipah virus can cause a range of illnesses in human beings – from respiratory infections both mild and severe to fatal encephalitis. Those infected with Nipah can develop:
- Fever
- Headaches
- Muscle pain
- Vomiting
- Sore throat.
Dizziness, drowsiness, altered consciousness, and neurological issues can also point to acute encephalitis. Some people can also experience atypical pneumonia and severe respiratory problems, including acute respiratory distress. Severe cases can see encephalitis and seizures occurring – with individuals slipping into a coma between 24 and 48 hours. The virus’ incubation period is thought to be from four days to 14 days – however there have been instances of the virus incubating after as many as 45 days.
Unfortunately, there are no drugs or vaccines to treat Nipah at the moment.
The WHO has recommended ‘intensive supportive care to treat severe respiratory and neurologic complications’. The organisation has also identified the virus as a priority disease for the WHO Research and Development Blueprint. Why is Kerala so vulnerable? The Nipah virus has repeatedly resurfaced in Kerala since 2018. A Reuters special investigation noted that humanity’s drive for resources is destroying the wildlife habitat of bats – which carry tens of thousands of viruses – and creating conditions ripe for a bat-borne disease to spill over to humanity. [caption id=“attachment_13115952” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The Nipah virus has repeatedly resurfaced in Kerala since 2018. Representational image.[/caption] The analysis is based on an examination of 95 spillovers in the past two decades of viruses found in bats, including Ebola, SARS, Marburg and Nipah. The news agency identified more than 9 million square km in 113 countries where human alteration of sensitive landscapes has created conditions that closely match those around past spillovers.
Reuters calls such areas “jump zones.”
As per Reuters, nearly half a billion people in India live in such jump zones – the most of any nation. According to the study, few places around the world have more potential for spillover than Kerala. The state has witnessed dramatic changes in the past half-century. Lush forest in the early 1970s carpeted nearly 25,000 of Kerala’s 38,000 sq km, according to a report by the Indian Institute of Science’s Centre for Ecological Sciences. From 1973 to 2016, more than a third of that woodland disappeared, with rapid urbanization and expansion of plantations. Kerala is one of India’s leading producers of rubber, coffee, coconut and spices. “In the name of development, we degraded the landscapes which are ecologically fragile,” report co-author TV. Ramachandra told Reuters. “We made the region more vulnerable.” Urban areas, meanwhile, ballooned from 95 sq km to more than 4,000. Three of the world’s 50 fastest-growing metropolitan areas are in Kerala, according to UN urban population estimates for large cities. Extensive tree loss and rapid urbanization have created ideal conditions for a virus like Nipah to emerge. Kerala, on the eastern shore of the Arabian Sea, has some of the leading jump zones identified by Reuters. It is home to more than 40 species of bats and 35 million people. Its mountain forests and wooded hillocks, prime bat habitat, have been progressively cleared to make way for homes, agriculture, businesses, and industry, with major rail and highway projects still on the agenda. Quick growth, the Reuters analysis shows, made conditions ripe for spillover across 83 per cent of Kerala at the time of the Nipah outbreak, up from 58 per cent in 2002. Flying foxes abound in coastal areas of Kerala and in the midlands, wooded hills running north and south between the sea and mountains to the east. The open terrain accommodates the bats’ large wingspan. A 2022 study that mapped the distribution of bat species in Kerala found 90 per cent of flying fox territory there is unprotected, vulnerable to development. The coast and midlands are where most of Kerala’s growth has occurred. It’s also where three recent spillovers happened: the 2018 outbreak that began with Sabith and two individual cases since. Malik Fasil Madala, a wildlife ecologist who studies flying foxes at Kerala Agricultural University, has observed destruction of the animals’ habitat for mining and construction. He cited studies that found evidence that stress from such disturbances weakens bats’ ability to fend off viruses.
“And virus spillover tends to happen more,” Madala said.
After the 2018 spillover, public health officials began a campaign to dissuade residents from eating fruit with bite marks or doing anything that could disturb flying fox colonies. But residents say the bats have become increasingly difficult to avoid. [caption id=“attachment_13115962” align=“alignnone” width=“300”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Gokul Krishna, a telecommunications student, couldn’t leave the house in the evening without encountering flying foxes. The bats flocked to a mango tree just outside the door of the home where he and other family members lived. The Reuters analysis found that nearly 90 per cent of the roughly 200 sq km around the home – outside the city of Kochi, Kerala’s largest – was at high risk for spillover. The 2018 outbreak was Nipah’s first known appearance in this part of India. But there have been at least two Nipah spillovers in Kerala since then – to a 21-year-old college student who survived in 2019 and a 13-year-old boy who died in 2021. Pragya Yadav, the lead scientist on Nipah research at India’s National Institute of Virology, said the expansion of human settlement in Kerala and worldwide has led to habitat loss, declining biodiversity and migration of animals closer to people, “which eventually helps the virus to jump from bats to humans.” The Reuters jump-zone analysis highlights a global trend that world leaders need to address “for the future of humanity,” Yadav said. “Nobody is safe…It will take no time for a disease outbreak to reach anywhere in the world because of international travel and trade.” ‘No need to panic’ Speaking to Matrubhumi.com, Rajeev Sadanandan, the former Kerala additional chief secretary (health) who played a critical role in tamping down the 2018 outbreak said there is need to panic as the government has standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place. He, however, cautioned that the state may have to take greater precautions.
He also said it was unsurprising that the Nipah virus has reemerged in Kerala.
Impact Shorts
View All“Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are the natural host of the Nipah virus. National Institute of Virology and Indian Council of Medical Research after their search for the source of the 2018 outbreak confirmed and established the Nipah link with Pteropus (Pteropodidae) bats. Nearly 20 per cent of the bats collected from the outbreak area tested positive for Nipah virus. These types of bats are not only seen in Kozhikode but also other parts of Kerala.” “The problem is that not every Nipah-carrying bat may not die and it may transmit disease to other bats, making the affected population prevail and affect humans. It may be noted that bats can fly more than 50 km in a day. It is also likely that the affected population of bats may have increased from 20 per cent (since 2018)." With inputs from agencies
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