The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported an outbreak of Nipah virus in India, prompting global healthcare authorities to heighten disease surveillance.
According to the WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who described the disease as a “rare but serious disease”, two cases of the virus have been recorded in India’s West Bengal State.
Nipah Virus is a Zoonotic disease pathogen that is mainly spread to humans through infected animals, according to the global health agency.
The virus is mainly spread by fruit bats or flying foxes, which are distributed in the coastal regions and on several islands in the Indian Ocean, India, South-East Asia, and Oceania.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, during an end-of-year press conference in Geneva on December 14, 2025.
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Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Cases of Nipah virus infection were first reported in 1998 in Malaysia, and have since then been reported in other countries including Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, and Singapore, according to the WHO.
The virus can also be spread through food contaminated with saliva, urine, and excreta of infected animals, or directly from person to person through close contact with an infected person.
The virus has flu-like symptoms, including fever, headaches, muscle pain, vomiting, and sore throat, which typically take 14 days to appear after a person is infected
The UN agency noted that there is currently no licensed vaccine or specific therapeutic treatment for the disease, and preventing infection in people relies mainly on raising awareness of the risk factors.
According to the WHO, the outbreak of the virus, which has a CFR of 40-75 per cent, is linked to bat activities and cultural practices such as the consumption of raw date palm sap.
“The virus can be transmitted to humans from wild and domestic animals; however, as the disease can be transmitted by domesticated animals, secondary human-to-human transmissions are also possible,” WHO stated.
The two new recorded cases of the virus involve a female and a male nurse from Barasat, who developed signs of the disease in late December 2025 and were admitted to the hospital in early January 2026.
Adhanom said that even though no linked cases of the virus have been detected outside India so far, the WHO and Indian Health Authorities are closely monitoring more than 190 people who had contact with the infected individuals.
According to reports from Reuters, other countries, including Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, have reinforced their airport screening checks to prevent the spread of the disease.
“Authorities have increased disease surveillance and testing, implemented prevention and control measures in health care settings, and are keeping the public informed about how to protect themselves,” the DG said.
An image of the World Health Organization (WHO) building.
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