Nipah virus emergence, transmission, and pathogenesis

Abstract

Nipah virus was discovered during an outbreak of respiratory and neurological disease in Malaysia and Singapore in 1998–1999 involving 276 human cases, with 106 fatalities. Since 2001, outbreaks of Nipah virus disease have occurred almost every year in Bangladesh with case-fatality rates up to 90 %. Human disease is characterized by both respiratory and neurological symptoms; effective vaccines or treatments are currently unavailable.Two different transmission cycles from the natural host, fruit bats, to humans have been proposed. In Malaysia, pigs functioned as an intermediate and amplifying host and human-to-human transmission was not described. In Bangladesh, Nipah virus is thought to be transmitted via consumption of date palm juice contaminated by bats during collection, with subsequent human-to-human transmission in an estimated 50 % of cases.This chapter provides an overview of the current knowledge on Nipah virus, with a special focus on the emergence, transmission, and pathogenesis of Nipah virus. Outbreak intervention strategies and treatment options are also discussed.