A new virus has been causing mysterious deaths of people in Kerala due to which the whole area is under high alert. The virus is called the Nipah virus (NiV) .
What is Nipah Virus ?
Nipah virus was initially discovered when it caused an outbreak of brain fever among pig farmers in Malaysia.
Should You be worried ? A little. As it is transmitted from person to person and there is no effective antiviral therapy for this infection .
Who are at risk and how is it transmitted?
1.People working with pigs and consuming pigs
Farmers who come in contact with bats.
Consuming Fruits which are already bitten by bat.
Contact with people who already have Nipah virus infection.
The initial symptoms are non-specific, characterized by the sudden onset of fever, headache, muscle pain , nausea and vomiting. Neck rigidity and photophobia are also seen.
The disease rapidly progresses, with deterioration in consciousness leading to coma within five to seven days.
Treatment is still not specified however Supportive care is the mainstay of treatment and infected patients may require intensive care monitoring.
THERE IS NO APPROVED SPECIFIC THERAPY FOR THIS INFECTION .
So prevention is the only cure !
Prevention is basically done by the following ways
Avoid contact with pigs and pig handlers .
Maintain personal hygeine and intensive hand washing practices
Avoid consuming raw fruits, Consume only well cooked, clean, home made food till the outbreak settles down.
Preferably use N95 mask while travelling or working in public places to avoid person to person transmission.
Be aware of the symptoms and report to the doctor immediately for early diagnosis and treatment.
Lets be safe and keep one another safe ❤️
Photo source- google
Nice article, could you explain a little bit about how the virus causes disease? The pathogenesis, that is? Does it cause some form of viral encephalitis or something?
What i understand from my research is that the virus enters the body ,attacks membrane basically in the respiratory tract and penetrates deep and incubates . Hence depending on the time for incubation the symptoms appear, which can take as fast as 3 days or can take upto a month to show. It then spread to most of the internal organ . How exactly it reaches the brain is not very clear but it looks like the spinal cord makes the way there. On reaching the brain it causes ischemia and thrombosis (stroke) and later encephalitis which can cause a brain lesion.
The main affects include vasculities, encephalitis and neurologic defecits.
I wrote a small technical article on the same. Hope it helps some people that may need a little more information
https://steemit.com/health/@viralfrost/nipah-virus