Staff Reporter :
The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has identified nipah as the cause of five deaths in the country’s northwestern Thakurgoan district.
It has warned the people again ‘not to drink raw date juice’ which is the source of the viral infection that can pass from one person to another.
The IEDCR in a statement on Sunday said it found the presence of the virus in the first deceased. The others came into contact of that person. The bat-borne nipah virus that killed nearly 70 percent of those infected in Bangladesh remained a health ‘concern’ since 2001.
It has been striking every year since then between December and April.
Anthropological study says drinking raw date or palm sap in the morning is an age-old practice in Bangladesh, especially in rural areas, where there is a little care for hygiene.
The virus has so far infected 303 people, and 211 of of them died.
This year six people died out of eight infections.
Earlier, a total of five members of a family died of unknown disease within 20 days from February 9 while the other five members of the family were undergoing treatment at Rangpur Medical College and Hospital.
