The World's Small but Deadly Nipah Belt

An outbreak of the Nipah virus in India's Kerala state has infected six and killed two. The very dangerous disease has led to hundreds of people being placed under surveillance and tested while offices and schools were shut down to prevent the spread of the illness. Meanwhile, another suspected case, a man who traveled from Kerala to West Bengal, has been placed under quarantine in Kolkata.

It is the fourth outbreak of the disease in Kerala in six years, with previous flare-ups claiming the lives of 21, 1 and none in 2018, 2019 and 2021. The disease is transmitted from fruit bats, specifically the Indian flying fox, which has been tested positive for the Nipah virus in Kerala before. Other outbreaks of the disease saw pigs as intermediate carriers, which in turn infected pig farmers, leading to the first outbreak of Nipah in Malaysia in 1998 and 1999. 105 people died. In Bangladesh, which has seen several outbreaks since 2001, infections have been traced back to people drinking raw or fermented date palm sap from fruits formerly in contact with bats. More than 230 people have succumbed to the disease in the country, mostly in states that border India. West Bengal on the border with Bangladesh also saw two outbreaks of the Nipah virus in 2001 and 2007.

While the virus doesn't transmit easily, human-to-human transmission is possible. Other than in the case of Malaysia and outbreaks in Bangladesh, the route of transmission in Kerala has not been clearly established.