viruses

Most Read

Top stories

An Incredibly Deadly Virus That Emerged in the 1990s Just Had an Outbreak in India

But the medical and biotech communities are already responding.

An Incredibly Deadly Virus That Emerged in the 1990s Just Had an Outbreak in India
Animal Husbandry department and Forest officials deposit a bat into a container after catching it inside a well at Changaroth in Kozhikode in the Indian state of Kerala on May 21, 2018. - A deadly virus carried mainly by fruit bats has killed at least three people in southern India, sparking a statewide health alert May 21. Eight other deaths in the state of Kerala are being investigated for possible links to the Nipah virus, which has a 70 percent mortality rate. (Photo by - / AFP) (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images)

The most feared viruses are those for which medical science has not yet developed a treatment, cure or preventive vaccine. Often, such viral agents have only been recently discovered and emerged as an outbreak in a particular region of the world. This is the case for the Nipah virus (NiV), which has claimed the lives of at least nine people in India this year.

Nipah virus was first discovered in Malaysia in the late 1990s when an outbreak of the virus struck approximately 265 people. People became sick after physically interacting with pigs in the area, with symptoms manifesting as brain inflammation.

Keep reading...Show less