Overview
- Two confirmed infections in West Bengal, reportedly involving healthcare workers, were identified from late-December exposures, with one patient improving and the other receiving critical care.
- The World Health Organization assesses the risk of wider national, regional, or global spread as low, with no evidence of sustained person-to-person transmission beyond the initial cluster.
- Several countries and territories, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, have implemented precautionary airport screening and heightened surveillance.
- Pakistani infectious-disease experts report no detected cases and no immediate need for broad screening, and they note that suspected diagnostic samples would be sent to the National Institute of Health.
- There is no approved vaccine or specific antiviral for Nipah, though an Oxford vaccine candidate is in a Phase II trial in Bangladesh and the experimental monoclonal antibody m102.4 remains investigational.