Nurse infected with Nipah virus dies in eastern India

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) – An Indian nurse, who was diagnosed with the Nipah virus in the eastern West Bengal state, died on Thursday, officials said.

Last month, two Nipah-positive cases were confirmed in West Bengal, prompting massive action by the authorities.

An Indian government official told Anadolu that a nurse “who was critically ill and was under intensive medical care” passed away on Thursday "due to cardiac arrest in the hospital where she was under treatment.”

Nipah virus is a rare but serious disease that can be transmitted from infected animals, particularly fruit bats, to humans through direct contact or contaminated food products such as raw date palm sap. It can also spread through person-to-person transmission.

Following the confirmation of two cases last month, West Bengal authorities increased surveillance in several districts and conducted high-risk contact tracing to prevent the virus from spreading further. More than 190 contacts from the two confirmed cases were placed under close monitoring.

On Jan. 27, the Indian Health Ministry said only two confirmed cases of Nipah had been reported from West Bengal since December of last year.

Following the two cases in India, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the risk as low at the national, regional, and global levels.

World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference in Geneva on Wednesday that three cases of Nipah had been reported in the previous few weeks, two in India and one in Bangladesh.

Last month, the WHO said in a statement that India has recorded small numbers of Nipah cases in the past and has demonstrated the ability to contain the virus. In the past five years, a dozen confirmed cases have been reported in Kerala State alone, it added.