The UK is reportedly keeping an eye on the recent spread of the Nipah virus in India. This virus can kill up to 75% of the people who get it.
According to the Daily Mail, two individuals have died from the virus’s recent spread in the southern state of Kerala. The virus is said to have been the inspiration for the Hollywood movie “Contagion,” which is about an outbreak.
Five more cases have been found, and one of them is a child of a victim. The news report said that so far, tests for the virus have already been done on 800 people. The Health Security Agency of the United Kingdom said that it was “closely” tracking the situation at hand.
X user Alert Channel wrote: “Reports are coming out of India about a very dangerous virus that has a 75% kill rate that is much deadlier than anything we’ve seen before.” Nipah virus is transmitted by fruit bats, which can pass it on to people through their spit or pee that they leave on fruit.
Public transportation has been stopped in the area, and people from nearby states are also being checked for the disease.
The illness can be transmitted easily by sneezing or coughing, so it is easy to catch. The study says that the virus can be fatal because it can cause breathing problems and brain swelling.
There are no medicines that work to stop the virus. The only thing that can be done is to help the person deal with the symptoms while their body fights off the infection.
“UKHSA’s new infections and zoonoses team is continuing to closely watch the Nipah outbreak through our epidemic intelligence processes,” a UK health agency spokeswoman said.
“The Nipah virus hasn’t been detected inside the UK, and there is very little chance that it will be brought there.”
Professor Miles Carroll, an infectious disease expert from the University of Oxford’s Pandemic Sciences Institute, stated, “So far, there have already been five confirmed illnesses and two deaths. Many of the people who got sick were related to the first person who got sick.”
In order to better safeguard the world from such outbreaks, Oxford scientists are collaborating with regional partners in endemic nations to learn more about Nipah.
He then said that Oxford experts are working on setting up a clinical study for the Nipah vaccine by applying the same technology used by the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
The Nipah virus has never before been reported in the U.K. or the U.S.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Nipah was found for the first time in 1999 after a spread of the disease among farmers who raise pigs in Malaysia.
