What is the nipah virus Describe mechanism of infection How is it .pdf
- 1. What is the nipah virus? Describe mechanism of infection? How is it transmitted? Why can't it be an arbovirus? Solution What is Nipah Virus? Nipah virus is a recently-identified, zoonotic (meaning a disease that can transmitted from animals to human) paramyxovirus that causes severe disease in both animals and humans.The natural host of this virus are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae Family, Pteropus genus. Outbreaks of this viral disease have occurred in Malaysia, Singapore, India and Bangladesh, and a putative Nipah virus was also recently associated with human disease in the Philippines. Nipah virus causes febrile encephalitis with respiratory syndrome that has a high mortality rate. Mechanism of infection: The reservoir for Nipah virus is believed to be fruit bats, and humans are infected by contact with infected bats or by contact with an intermediate animal host such as pigs. Pteropus species fruit bats are the natural reservoir of Nipah virus. Zoonotic transmission cycles of Nipah virus in Malaysia and Bangladesh: In Malaysia (left side of panel), Nipah virus was transmitted from bats on fruit trees on pig farms to pigs. Subsequently, pigs transmitted Nipah virus to people in close contact with the pigs. In Bangladesh (right side of panel), Nipah virus is thought to be transmitted via the consumption of raw date palm sap. While date palm sap is collected, bats drink from the sap stream or collection pots and contaminate the sap with Nipah virus through their saliva or urine. People become infected with Nipah virus after drinking this contaminated date palm sap. Subsequently, these infected people can transmit Nipah virus to others via close contact. Arbovirus are the virus that are transmitted from one human to the other by arthropod vectors ie., mosquitoes, ticks etc., example of a arboviral disease is yellow fever. Nipah virus is not an arbovirus because it transmitted from bats to humans or from pigs to humans.