Overview
- Two healthcare workers at a private hospital in Barasat, near Kolkata, tested positive in January after exposure in late December; one remains critically ill on a ventilator and the other is improving.
- India reports the situation as contained, with no additional cases detected in the country or abroad following extensive surveillance.
- WHO advises against travel or trade restrictions and notes no evidence of increased person-to-person transmission, citing India’s capacity to manage such outbreaks.
- Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, Nepal and Pakistan have tightened airport screening and preparedness as a precaution.
- Nipah is a bat-borne virus with an estimated 40–75% fatality rate and no licensed vaccine or specific treatment, and investigators are probing a suspected bat-to-human spillover linked to raw date palm sap in a probable earlier fatal case.