Updated By: LatestGKGS Desk
Biology: Nipah Virus, Hendra viruses and infection, Transmission
Biology: Nipah Virus, Hendra viruses, and infection in animals
It is an emerging infectious disease that broke out in Malaysia and Singapore in 1998 and 1999.
It first appeared in domestic pigs and has been found among several species of domestic animals including dogs, cats, goats, horses and sheep.
The infection is also non to affect human beings. The organism which causes Nipah Virus encephalitis is an RNA or Ribonucleic acid virus of the family Paramyxoviridae, genus Henipavirus, and is closely related to Hendra virus.
Nipah virus infection gets its name from the village in Malaysia where the person from whom the virus was first isolated succumbed to the disease.
How does Nipah spread or get transmitted?
The disease spreads through fruit bats or ‘flying foxes,’ of teh genus Pteropus, who are natural reservoir hosts of teh Nipah and Hendra viruses.
