Russian Doctors Warn of Deadly Nipah Virus from India
In Russia, as around the world, a new large-scale pandemic is anticipated. An outbreak of the Nipah virus has been detected in a popular tourist province in India. Scientists warn that travelers to Southeast Asian countries and labor migrants could easily bring it into the country, increasing the risk of mass spread of so-called Disease X, not to mention the now-familiar malaria, leishmaniasis, filariasis, or dengue fever. For details, see the V1.RU report.
«Damage Similar to Meningitis»
Recall that another outbreak of the Nipah virus occurred in Kolkata in late January, where a doctor, a nurse, and a medical facility employee were infected, with the nurse falling into a coma. She is presumed to have been infected while treating a patient with severe respiratory illness. Authorities checked 180 people who had contact with the sick and placed 20 of them in quarantine.
Scientists claim the Nipah virus can be transmitted from animals to humans and between humans. In India, people are most often infected through contact with bats. In humans, it can be asymptomatic or cause acute respiratory illness. Main symptoms include fever, headaches and muscle pains, nausea, and sore throat. In severe cases, the infection can lead to brain inflammation and coma within two days.
«The Nipah virus is among new and re-emerging diseases, also called emergent,» says Olga Chernyavskaya, Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases with Epidemiology and Tropical Medicine at the Volgograd State Medical University. «The first cases were registered in 1999 in Malaysia, the virus itself was discovered in 2001. Mainly, its outbreaks have been recorded in Southeast Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, the Philippines. The source of infection is animals: bats, pigs. But one can also get infected from a sick person. Infection occurs via the fecal-oral route, through food (from consuming products contaminated with bat saliva or urine; there were cases from eating meat), water, or contact-household means. An aerogenic mechanism (airborne droplet route) and contact (through contact with sick animals or people) are also possible. There have been no cases of this infection in Russia; it has not been imported.»
According to Dr. Chernyavskaya, the disease can be both asymptomatic and with clinical manifestations of varying severity. Like any fever, the illness is accompanied by elevated temperature, there may be catarrhal symptoms: cough, sneezing, sore throat, as well as muscle and headaches, weakness. Severe lesions of the central nervous system often occur.
«Damage to the central nervous system develops, similar to meningitis or meningoencephalitis,» says Olga Chernyavskaya. «Signs of this will be severe bursting headache, painful reaction to bright light, loud sounds, meningeal symptoms that a doctor can detect.»
At the same time, according to Professor Chernyavskaya, travelers, tourists, and labor migrants from Southeast Asian countries bring with them not only infections that also occur in Russia, but also local diseases.
«These are parasitic diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, amoebiasis, various tropical helminthiases. In recent years, cases of importation of some tropical viral diseases, particularly dengue fever and others transmitted by arthropods, have become more frequent. These can also be bacterial diseases, including dangerous ones like cholera,» explains Professor Chernyavskaya. «Diagnosis of these diseases varies: in some cases, the method of choice is microscopy of material from the patient, for example blood or feces; in others, serological testing; in others, PCR diagnostics is used. In all cases, epidemiological history helps the doctor make the correct diagnosis and therefore prescribe effective treatment — that is, information about which country, and better yet which region of that country, the sick person traveled to.»
The doctor warns: specific prevention in most cases does not exist, but non-specific measures can be quite effective.
«Protection depends on the disease we are dealing with. If it»s about malaria, leishmaniasis, filariasis, or dengue fever, the main measure will be protection from insect bites, using repellents, mosquito nets,« says the professor. »Against malaria, by the way, chemoprophylaxis with special antiparasitic drugs is also applicable, but that should already be prescribed by a doctor. From intestinal helminthiases, amoebiasis, cholera, one can protect oneself by following personal hygiene rules (thorough washing and disinfection of hands, avoiding street food prepared and sold under questionable conditions, protecting food from flies, consuming bottled water) — in short, the same measures used for prevention of other intestinal infections are applicable.«
«There Are Scarier Stories»
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor at George Mason University (USA), Chief Researcher at the Medical Genetics Research Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Ancha Baranova urges not to panic, stating that the virus poses virtually no danger to Russians.
«What is this Nipah virus and will we all die again soon? It»s an unpleasant virus that has another relative — the Hendra virus, also tropical. Hence the group is called henipaviruses,« the professor writes in her Telegram channel. »Yes, the lethality among the sick is high — 50–75%. But: the virus«s host is fruit bats, so in Russia it certainly won»t become endemic. Pigs that have been in contact with fruit bats also get sick. And people, yes. After close contact with sick pigs. Or if you eat a banana that a sick bat didn«t finish.»
«Human-to-human transmission is theoretically possible, through contact with biological fluids (mainly blood). As you can see, the virus»s global epidemic potential is small.«
Avoid Bats and Wash Hands
The Volgograd Regional Office of Rospotrebnadzor (the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing), in turn, acknowledges the risk of importing the disease caused by the Nipah virus to Russia and Volgograd. The department points out that in recent years, outbreaks of this virus have regularly been noted not only in India but also registered in various Southeast Asian countries.
«The Nipah virus is zoonotic, meaning it is transmitted to humans from animals, for example from bats or pigs. Transmission through contaminated food and from person to person is also possible,» the department warns. «Specialists of the Volgograd Regional Office of Rospotrebnadzor are monitoring information about the worsening epidemiological situation due to the Nipah virus outbreak in India. At the air checkpoint of the state border »Volgograd International Airport (Gumrak),« the AIS »Perimeter« system is operational; the system allows for real-time detection of citizens with signs of infectious diseases and prevents further spread of diseases.»
Rospotrebnadzor strongly recommends that tourists traveling to India and other Southeast Asian countries:
avoid contact with sick animals;
wash hands thoroughly with soap;
use antiseptic means;
wash fruits and vegetables before consumption;
avoid consuming water from unverified sources.
If signs of illness appear, such as high fever, cough, severe headache, it is necessary to consult a doctor immediately.
Meanwhile, Rospotrebnadzor has recorded the first case of Zika fever in Russia: an infected Russian woman arrived from a vacation in the Dominican Republic. The department noted that upon arrival in Moscow, «no clinical manifestations of the disease were noted»; symptoms appeared only a few days later. The woman is currently hospitalized, her condition is satisfactory.
