Staff Reporter :
Experts at discussion have warned the people across the globe not to drink raw date juice due to threat of Nipah virus. It believed to be transmitted from drinking Nipah-contaminated raw date juice, they added.
The deadly Nipah virus has already caused human outbreaks across South and South East Asia, they said adding that it has ‘serious epidemic potential’.
The two-day Nipah conference, the first to focus on this deadly virus, started on Monday in Singapore, co-hosted by CEPI and the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.
Dr. Meerjady Sabrina Flora, the Director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) speaking about the virus told journalists at her office in Dhaka yesterday that, “Bats are liable to spread Nipah virus in the world. It has become epidemic, especially in some Asian countries.”
“So, we have to be careful and should avoid drinking raw dates juice,” the IEDCR Director said.
She said that no vaccine has been introduced yet to safe human health from this virus.
Besides, Sabrina also asked not to eat the fruits, which is partially eaten by bats, because it also can spread Nipah virus.
This virus, identified in 1999 in Malaysia and Singapore, has sparked outbreaks with mortality rates of between 40 per cent and 90per cent and spread thousands of kilometres to Bangladesh and India.
“Twenty years have passed since its discovery, but the world is still not adequately equipped to tackle the global health threat posed by Nipah virus,” said Richard Hatchett, Chief Executive of the CEPI Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which is co-leading the conference in Singapore.
The Nipah virus is carried primarily by bats and pigs, which can also be transmitted directly from person to person as well as through contaminated food.
Within two years of being first discovered, Nipah had spread to Bangladesh, where it has caused several outbreaks since 2001. A 2018 Nipah outbreak in Kerala, India, killed 17 people.
“Outbreaks of Nipah virus have so far been confined to South and Southeast Asia, but the virus has serious epidemic potential, because Pteropus fruit bats that carry the virus are found throughout the tropics and sub-tropics, which are home to more than two billion people,” Hatchett said.
He said since Nipah can also pass from person to person, it could, in theory, also spread into densely populated areas too.
Experts at discussion have warned the people across the globe not to drink raw date juice due to threat of Nipah virus. It believed to be transmitted from drinking Nipah-contaminated raw date juice, they added.
The deadly Nipah virus has already caused human outbreaks across South and South East Asia, they said adding that it has ‘serious epidemic potential’.
The two-day Nipah conference, the first to focus on this deadly virus, started on Monday in Singapore, co-hosted by CEPI and the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.
Dr. Meerjady Sabrina Flora, the Director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) speaking about the virus told journalists at her office in Dhaka yesterday that, “Bats are liable to spread Nipah virus in the world. It has become epidemic, especially in some Asian countries.”
“So, we have to be careful and should avoid drinking raw dates juice,” the IEDCR Director said.
She said that no vaccine has been introduced yet to safe human health from this virus.
Besides, Sabrina also asked not to eat the fruits, which is partially eaten by bats, because it also can spread Nipah virus.
This virus, identified in 1999 in Malaysia and Singapore, has sparked outbreaks with mortality rates of between 40 per cent and 90per cent and spread thousands of kilometres to Bangladesh and India.
“Twenty years have passed since its discovery, but the world is still not adequately equipped to tackle the global health threat posed by Nipah virus,” said Richard Hatchett, Chief Executive of the CEPI Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which is co-leading the conference in Singapore.
The Nipah virus is carried primarily by bats and pigs, which can also be transmitted directly from person to person as well as through contaminated food.
Within two years of being first discovered, Nipah had spread to Bangladesh, where it has caused several outbreaks since 2001. A 2018 Nipah outbreak in Kerala, India, killed 17 people.
“Outbreaks of Nipah virus have so far been confined to South and Southeast Asia, but the virus has serious epidemic potential, because Pteropus fruit bats that carry the virus are found throughout the tropics and sub-tropics, which are home to more than two billion people,” Hatchett said.
He said since Nipah can also pass from person to person, it could, in theory, also spread into densely populated areas too.
