The New Nation - Internet Edition

Sheikh Arif Bulbon

At least, eight people died in the last 48 hours due to latest outbreak of Nipah virus, health officials confirmed yesterday.

Nipah outbreak is the latest among the recent waves of biological invasions like bird flu in the country.

Nipah induces flu-like symptoms that often lead to encephalitis and coma, with at least a 70 per cent mortality rate in Bangladesh. Earlier, the latest outbreak was confirmed on Friday. Mahmudur Rahman, a senior health official, said.

"So far eight people including four children have died in the latest outbreak of the Nipah virus in Manikganj and Rajbari districts,"

"Several others are in critical condition. We told people not to be panicked. We have also increased surveillance in the affected area," he said.

"Basically Nipah virus outbreak occurs from drinking bat eaten date juice. We request people not to leave uncovered the pots for collecting date juice and to boil the juice properly before drinking. In case of urban areas, risk is low, but in rural areas, people could get easily infected with the virus by drinking date juice," said Mahmudur.

At least 89 people have died of the virus since the first outbreak in 2001. The government has set up a detection laboratory to speed up testing for any outbreak.

In 2004, the same two districts reported the worst outbreak, when nearly 40 people died, and the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDCP) was called in to help combat the disease.

The virus, named after the Malaysian village where it was first detected, jumped the species barrier from fruit bats to pigs and then to humans in October 1998.

In 1999, 256 people in Malaysia fell ill with the disease, and four in 10 patients died. More than a million pigs were slaughtered to help curb its spread.

Of 265 confirmed cases in Malaysia and Singapore, 105 had died. And even among the survivors the virus has taken awful toll - half of the survivors were left with some degree of brain damage.