Nipah virus and bats
- Author:
Heng Thay Chong
;
Suhailah Abdullah
;
Chong Tin Tan
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- From:Neurology Asia
2009;14(1):73-76
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Since the initial outbreak in Malaysia, small outbreaks of Nipah encephalitis have been reported almost
annually in Bangladesh. Epidemiological studies have shown that the virus could be transmitted from
bat to human and from human to human. Wildlife studies have also shown that the virus was widely
distributed in at least 10 genera and 23 species of bats in a large part of Asia and Africa – a region
that stretches from Australia and southern China, and from Indonesia to as far west as Ghana, a region
with a total population of more than 1.4 billion people. As bats are long distant flying, gregarious
animals living in large colonies which could exchange novel viruses from one species to another, it
is not unexpected that the seroprevalence of Henipavirus among bat colonies are relatively high. The
widespread distribution of both the Henipavirus and its hosts also means that the virus will remain
an important cause of zoonotic disease.
- Full text:P020150901610208794917.pdf
