General Science
Nipah virus
▪ Nipah virus resurfaces in Kerala, two cases reported.
▪ Nipah virus (NiV) is a zoonotic virus that can be transmitted from animals to humans and can
cause severe respiratory and neurological illnesses.
▪ 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.
▪ The disease spreads through fruit bats or ‘flying foxes,’ of the genus Pteropus, who are natural
reservoir hosts of the Nipah and Hendra viruses.
▪ There is no definitive treatment available for the virus.
