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PANDEMIC ALERT LEVEL
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Now tracking the new emerging South Africa Omicron Variant

New virus to watch out for!

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CRS, DrPH View Drop Down
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    Posted: September 06 2021 at 10:54pm

Oh, great....Nipah virus is making a comeback in India!   75% fatality rate is huge, smallpox is 30% by comparison. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kerala-nipah-virus-india-outbreak-deaths/

An infected human typically shows symptoms including fever and headache for anywhere between three days and two weeks, followed by a cough, sore throat and respiratory issues. The condition later progresses swiftly to swelling in the brain cells, leading to drowsiness, confusion, and then possible coma and death.

There is no cure or vaccine for Nipah yet, and patients are only given supportive medical care.

According to the World Health Organization, up to 75% of Nipah infections prove fatal. 

The mortality rate for the coronavirus, by comparison, is believed to be about 2%. About 20% of survivors experience neurological symptoms that can persist, including seizures and personality changes.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Usk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2021 at 5:39pm

Unless you live in these areas you have nothing to worry about

And are around pigs

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ViQueen24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2021 at 7:04pm

Let's hope not.  But the last sentence of this article is rather chilling:

https://nypost.com/2021/09/07/india-fighting-to-contain-nipah-a-virus-deadlier-than-covid-19/


India fighting to contain Nipah, a virus deadlier than COVID-19

By Lee Brown

September 7, 2021 12:31pm  Updated



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A 12-year-old boy has died in India of Nipah, a rare virus that is far deadlier than COVID-19 — and one that health officials have long feared could start a global pandemic.


The unidentified boy died Sunday at a hospital in Kerala, the southern state already battling the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the hard-hit country, officials there said.


He had already visited two other hospitals before his death, putting him in contact with potentially hundreds of people — with up to 11 showing potential symptoms, NDTV reported.


Previous outbreaks of Nipah, or NiV, showed an estimated fatality rate of between 40% and 75%, according to the World Health Organization, making it far more deadly than the coronavirus.


“The virus has been shown to spread from person-to-person in these outbreaks, raising concerns about the potential for NiV to cause a global pandemic,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.


People in protective suits prepare to cremate the body of a 12-year-old boy died of the Nipah virus in Kozhikode, Kerala state, India, Sunday, Sept.5, 2021.

People in protective suits prepare to cremate the body of a 12-year-old boy who died of the Nipah virus in Kozhikode, Kerala state, India on Sept.5, 2021.

AP Photo/Shijith. K

More than 100 possible contacts of the boy have already been forced to isolate, with 48 of them being monitored in a hospital in Kerala.


Officials will also be carrying out door-to-door surveillance and identifying secondary contacts.


Health officials are urgently testing as many contacts as possible, with samples from the boy’s primary contacts — his family and health care workers — coming back negative.


“That these eight immediate contacts tested negative is a great relief,” said the state health minister, Veena George.


Nipah virus was first discovered in Malaysia and Singapore in 1999 — an outbreak of nearly 300 human cases, with more than 100 deaths, the CDC noted. More than 1 million pigs were killed to help control the outbreak, causing a “substantial economic impact.”


Complicating its detection, key symptoms are similar to those of COVID-19, including fever, cough, sore throat and difficulty breathing, the CDC noted.


The infected often also suffer encephalitis, or swelling of the brain — and if they survive, often suffer persistent convulsions and even personality changes. The contagion can remain dormant in sufferers — who may get sick and possibly die from it “months and even years after exposure,” the CDC warned.


There is no vaccine, and the only treatment is supportive care to control complications and keep patients comfortable.


Kerala dealt with a previous outbreak of Nipah in 2018, when more than a dozen people died.


This time around, the concern is compounded by the fact that the state is already struggling to contain COVID-19.


Nipah, meanwhile, can be “challenging” to detect “due to the non-specific early symptoms of the illness,” even though “early detection and diagnosis are critical to increase chances of survival ” and “to prevent transmission to other people,” the CDC has said.


India Today warned its readers, “The nature of Nipah virus infection is such that if the outbreak spirals out of control, it could pose a bigger threat to public health than the coronavirus pandemic.”


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote EdwinSm, Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2021 at 10:40pm

Usk.  That was an interesting map, I presume it is marked as limited because the bat (whose range is shown) is the main reservoir. 


 If there are other vectors, then may be it is not so reassuring, as the two SARS outbreaks seem related to bats at the beginning, but the current outbreak is managing quite well without bats.   

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Usk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2021 at 5:11pm

The vector for human is pigs not bats. The pigs can be infected by bats who bite the pigs   Then the human eats the pigs or is around the pig feces and gets it that way. At least that is what the CDC web site says

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CRS, DrPH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2021 at 6:57pm

Originally posted by Usk Usk wrote:

The vector for human is pigs not bats. The pigs can be infected by bats who bite the pigs   Then the human eats the pigs or is around the pig feces and gets it that way. At least that is what the CDC web site says

Actually, pigs can be infected by eating dead bats, food infected by bat saliva/feces etc.  Since the flying fox host of the virus eats fruit, there are many possible crossover routes. 

Nipah virus was used as the model for the movie "Contagion."  CDC provided quite a bit of technical guidance for that film. 

Given all that, I think SARS-CoV2 is a bigger threat, since the Delta variant seems to spread so easily.  

I'm a big fan of WHO:  https://www.who.int/health-topics/nipah-virus-infection#tab=tab_1

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote KiwiMum Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2021 at 7:32pm

I love the film Contagion. I just like things to happen quickly in life, and so I'm all in favour of a fast slate wiper with a high fatality rate rather than a slow burner with a low fatality that still does the same amount of damage but just disrupts us for longer.

Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KiwiMum Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2021 at 7:33pm

Chuck, what would happen if someone with Covid caught Nipah virus? Are they capable of recombining or are they so unrelated that that couldn't happen?

Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CRS, DrPH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2021 at 9:08pm

Originally posted by KiwiMum KiwiMum wrote:

I love the film Contagion. I just like things to happen quickly in life, and so I'm all in favour of a fast slate wiper with a high fatality rate rather than a slow burner with a low fatality that still does the same amount of damage but just disrupts us for longer.

  Good on you!

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CRS, DrPH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2021 at 9:12pm

Originally posted by KiwiMum KiwiMum wrote:

Chuck, what would happen if someone with Covid caught Nipah virus? Are they capable of recombining or are they so unrelated that that couldn't happen?

Besides feeling like sh*t, I think Nipah would kill you very quickly.  I don't believe there is any chance of reassortment between the two viruses.  

Contagion was fun, but I thought the mass burial scene was a bit overdone.  However, we did see scenes sort of like that in the USA during COVID-19, when there were many burials of unidentified dead in Hart Island (a potter's field) in New York City. 



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 09 2021 at 1:57am

DW (English): India races to contain potential outbreak of Nipah virus after boy dies.

https://dw.com/p/4063Y?maca=en-gk-volltext-newsstand-topstories-en-10709-xml-googlenews

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote EdwinSm, Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 09 2021 at 5:16am

Thanks people for the information, I was feeling a bit lazy that day!  Now I have just gone to look at the CDC pages, and it appears that the Nipah virus has shown person-to-person transmission.

Quote Nipah virus (NiV) can spread to people from:

  • Direct contact with infected animals, such as bats or pigs, or their body fluids (such as blood, urine or saliva)
  • Consuming food products that have been contaminated by body fluids of infected animals (such as palm sap or fruit contaminated by an infected bat)
  • Close contact with a person infected with NiV or their body fluids (including nasal or respiratory droplets, urine, or blood)

.......

However, person-to-person spread of NiV is regularly reported in Bangladesh and India. This is most commonly seen in the families and caregivers of NiV-infected patients, and in healthcare settings.

https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/nipah/transmission/index.html

I hope the P2P spread is limited!  Even if the geographical area is limited a high percentage of the world's population is still at risk.

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