How Worried Should You Be About Nipah Virus?

Lately, theres been some chatter about something called Nipah virus.

What the hell is that?

Is it going to shut everything down?

Are we all going to die?

Lets figure out what Nipah is all about.

What is Nipah virus?

Accordingto the World Health Organization, Nipah virus causes a range of clinical presentations.

Someone who contracts it can have an asymptomatic infection or an acute respiratory infection and fatal encephalitis.

(We had to look up encephalitis, too; its inflammation of the brain.)

The typical symptoms include a fever or headache for three days to two weeks.

After that, some people get a cough, sore throat, and other respiratory problems.

Like the coronavirus, Nipah has an incubation period of about four to 14 days from exposure to symptoms.

That said, the WHO notes that an incubation period as long as 45 days has been reported.

There is no treatment or vaccine available, per the WHO, for people or for animals.

The primary treatment for humans is supportive care.

So far, it sounds pretty bad, we will admit, but dont freak out.

Since its discovery in 1999, the virus is known to have killed a little over 260 people.

So far, theyve confirmed new infections while doing rigorous contact tracing.

So far, only two of those people have begun to show symptoms.

Since the virus was discovered in Malaysia in 1999, there have been multiple outbreaks.

All of them have occurred in South and Southeast Asia.

Between 1998 and 2018, the virus was responsible for643 cases and 380 deaths.

As mentioned, the disease can affect a number of animals.

Its good to be knowledgeable and safe, but for now theres no need to worry too much.

You have enough to preoccupy yourself with amid the Delta variant spike, anyway.