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Preventing Nipah – Advice for travelers and expatriates

Map of Global Nipah risk areas

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Preventing Nipah if you are a traveler to India or Malaysia or an expatriate living overseas –

 

Some advice on things you can do to prevent nipah

– First, know that the latest outbreak is not new, although the nipah virus is relatively unknown and has killed virtually all of its victims in India. Second, know that preventing nipah is possible because the virus is very rare in terms of health risk – if you know the following information and practice safe travel/eating habits.

 

Background on the nipah / henipah virus

The Nipah virus (aka Henipah virus or NiV) has not been around for very long.

It first gained worldwide attention in 1998 when an outbreak in Malaysia killed over 100 people. In that instance, transmission came through infected pigs but the suspected carrier worldwide are fruit bats. (Pigs just happen to be at risk of infection).

In 2004, the Nipah virus again broke out. This time in Bangladesh as humans became infected through date palm sap that had been contaminated by fruit bats.

The latest outbreak in 2018 in India is most likely due to infected well water due to fruit bats that were living in a well. Preventing nipah in this specific context could have been as easy as eradicating the bat population roosting in the well, and following safe water guidelines (boiling and filtration) – Get the accompanying .pdf at https://www.gninsurance.com/documents/travel-and-safe-drinking-water-whitepaper.pdf

 

 

Preventing nipah - free download .pdf

Why preventing nipah is hard

Due to its similarity to a number of other flus and viruses, preventing nipah is hard since it is hard to diagnose.
While the incubation period is 4-14 days, once someone starts exhibiting symptoms, it can result in coma or seizures or swelling of the brain in 24-48 hours, giving doctors little time to diagnose or respond to individuals patients especially at the beginning of an outbreak.

There is no vaccine or cure of Nipah besides quarantine and intensive treatment of the symptoms. So far, the mortality rate is reported between 45-70% but is considered much higher outside of established outbreak areas, due to the difficulty to diagnose.

 

Outbreaks have also been reported in Africa. Due to transmission via fruit, farmers and sellers of fruit in markets have suffered lost sales due to fear of contagion via saliva or urine of bats.

 

 

Preventing Nipah for Travelers:

Map of Global Nipah risk areasNipah is RARE.

The World Health Organization has not issued any travel restrictions or warnings to travelers.

The regions at risk are quite large including Southeast Asia, South Asia, N. Australia and most of Africa. (Please note: There are much more common sicknesses and ways to protect yourself from them, and other high-risk diseases and prevention, that we cover in our free Travel Medical Guide, first published by Dr. John Askew and now completely updated and revised.)

 

Some ways you can protect yourself against nipah if traveling in infected regions:

  • Pork makes up about 38 percent of meat production worldwide. Eating pork that is properly prepared and cooked should be Nipah-free. However, avoid exposure to pig farms and handling raw pork.

 

 

 

 

 

More on Preventing Nipah – Popular News Sites:

 

More on Preventing Nipah – From World Health Organizations:

 

 

 

 

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