IEDCR says encephalitis caused by nipah virus
The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research on Friday identified the disease that killed three more people in Lalmonirhat on the day as encephalitis, acute brain inflammation, caused by nipah virus. So far 20 people died of the disease in the place in four days, according to an unofficial figure.
The IEDCR director, Mahmudur Rahman, said, ‘After a laboratory test, we have confirmed that the people were suffering from encephalitis caused by nipah virus.’
The IEDCR, however, said 22 people were infected with the virus and 14 of them died till Friday.
Death rate of nipah virus is very high, said Mahmudur Rahman adding that three in four such patients died from the infection.
Reports from Hatibandha in the district said that more than 50 others, mostly children, contracted the disease, panicking people in the locality.
The people who died on Friday were Bacchu Mia, 57, of Baraipara, Asadul Islam, 18, of Gendukuri and Joynal, 42, of Dakkhin Goddimari in the upazila.
An eight-member IEDCR team was visiting the area. The team leader Subodh Kumar Kunda, principal scientific officer at the IEDCR, said that it is a contagious disease and has no specific treatment.
The local people on Friday morning, meanwhile, organised a human chain in front of the upazila health complex demanding immediate identification of the disease and take steps against the disease.
ASM Alamgir, senior scientific officer at the IEDCR, said there is no effective medicine or vaccine available to treat the patient infected by nipah virus. Creating awareness of the disease is main step which can prevent the disease.
Symptoms appear with fever followed by altered mental status, seizure and death, IEDCR experts said. They suggested that people in affected areas with such symptoms should see doctors.
The virus is highly infectious and has the potential to pass from person to person, they added.
The IEDCR experts advised people in the areas where nipah infection was prevalent areas not to eat fruit bitten or half-bitten by fruit bats, or drink raw juices of palm and date trees. They also suggested that date juice should not be collected in open pitchers.
According to experts, most of the nipah infection cases were reported between January and May. This is the breeding period of fruit bats and pregnant bats harbour the virus and possibly transmit it to humans.
When children collect fruits and eat them without washing, the virus discharged from bat’s saliva is transmitted to them.
Experts also urged the parents of the nipah-prone areas not to allow their children to play under fruit trees.
Five people were infected with the virus in January and four of them died according to the IEDCR.
One hundred and fifty-two cases of nipah infection were reported in the country after 2001 and 113 of them died, IEDCR officials said.
