Bangladesh on Monday reported its first death from the brain-damaging Nipah virus this year, when a man died after drinking raw date juice.
The virus is transmitted to humans through contact with the body fluids of infected bats, pigs, and other people, and first appeared in Malaysia in 1999 during an outbreak that affected farmers and others who come into contact with pigs. confirmed.
Since then, infections have occurred in Bangladesh, India and Singapore, with more than 160 deaths in Bangladesh.
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According to Tahmina Shirin, director of the Ministry of Health’s Institute of Epidemiology and Disease Control Research (IEDCR), the country’s first case in 2024 was reported in Manikganj, about 50 kilometers from the capital Dhaka.
The husband of a Nipah virus survivor gestures to the date palm tree believed to be the source of the infection, in Faridpur, Bangladesh, on September 14, 2021. (Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File photo)
“The sample was sent for laboratory testing and came back positive. It was found that the person had been drinking raw date palm sap,” she told Reuters.
The Ministry of Health warned people not to eat fruit partially eaten by birds or bats or consume raw date juice.
There is no treatment or vaccine for this virus.
According to IEDCR, a total of 10 out of 14 people infected with the Nipah virus died in Bangladesh in 2023, the highest death toll in the past seven years.
Infection can cause fever, headache, cough, and difficulty breathing, and swelling of the brain may follow.
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According to the World Health Organization, the fatality rate is estimated at 40% to 75%.
