Tuesday 22 May 2018

Nipah Virus - Kozhikode District, India

This will be the start of a new series of disaster events as they unfold. The objective is to give a single page of resources, background information and news links that are relevant to a mounting crisis or disaster that is currently underway. The events tracked are not to be used as a sole resource of information that should be leveraged by Emergency Management responders. It will (hopefully) serve as a curation point of information and resources that can be used in a lessons learned environment and future reference as a learning aid. We will attempt to cover unusual types of disasters, small and big that many may not think about as important in addition to the larger events as they unfold. The series will be sporadic given the unpredictability of mother nature and where the event might occur. Access to information may not be available and links may become unusable.

Leave a comment and let us know if you like the format or want to add additional information.


The first event, Nipah Virus, is now affecting the Kozhikode District in India.

Location on Google Maps - Kozhikode, Kerala, India

Lead Agencies

  • National Centre for Disease Control, India - NCDC
  • Integrated Disease Surveillance Program, India - IDSP

What is Nipah Virus

 From the CDC (USA)

Nipah virus (NiV) is a member of the family Paramyxoviridae, genus Henipavirus. NiV was initially isolated and identified in 1999 during an outbreak of encephalitis and respiratory illness among pig farmers and people with close contact with pigs in Malaysia and Singapore. Its name originated from Sungai Nipah, a village in the Malaysian Peninsula where pig farmers became ill with encephalitis. Given the relatedness of NiV to Hendra virus, bat species were quickly singled out for investigation and flying foxes of the genus Pteropus were subsequently identified as the reservoir for NiV (Distribution Map).
Image Credit: Wikipedia

News links of current outbreak
  • CNN News - 10 confirmed dead from Nipah virus outbreak in India, including nurse treating patients
  • Telegraph India - NCDC boss heads team of specialists sent to Kerala to track Nipah virus
  • BBC News - Lini Puthussery: India's 'hero' nurse who died battling Nipah virus
Past incidents
  • National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) - Nipah Virus
Additional Resources
  • Comparison of the Pathogenicity of Nipah Virus Isolates from Bangladesh and Malaysia in the Syrian Hamster
Social Media Links

Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)