Nipah virus 'under control' in India – but Britain and the world must be alert for signs of infected travellers

After India, the other countries which need to be monitor the spread of the disease are the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Bahrain and Kuwait.

The organisation looked at direct and connecting flights from the five airports nearest to the epicentre of the outbreak and worked out which cities and countries were most likely to receive travellers from the affected areas.

Dr Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, said that while the immediate risk had now passed, countries such as the UK should still watch out for possible cases.

"There have been no new cases of the disease for a week or so and all the suspected cases have shown to be negative. But the virus takes a week or longer to incubate so it's still possible it's out there," he said. 

Jake Dunning, consultant in infectious diseases at Public Health England, said the agency was monitoring the disease. 

“This outbreak presents a negligible risk to the UK public. While southern India is a popular destination for UK tourists, the risk of tourists contracting the virus is very low if standard precautions are taken such as avoiding contact with bats and their environments, not touching any sick or dead animals and avoiding raw or partially fermented date sap.”

Some 19 people were infected with the virus, which spreads between humans through contact with bodily fluids of affected individuals. The Indian government has monitored more than 1,000 contacts of those affected and confirmed that the disease has not spread. 

The disease is spread through the ingestion of fruit bat secretions, such as saliva. Residents in Kerala were told to wash hands thoroughly and not consume fruit or vegetables partly eaten by birds or animals.

According to the Press Trust of India two of those who died were siblings in their 20s who had eaten fruit picked near to where they were building a home. The nurse treating them also died.

Nipah is on the World Health Organization's priority list of pathogens with potential to develop into an epidemic and for which there is currently no vaccine or effective treatment.

Last month the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations granted a $25m grant to two US-based companies, Profectus BioSciences and Emergent BioSolutions, to develop a vaccine against the disease.

Richard Hatchett, chief executive of the coalition, described Nipah as a "deadly pathogen that has already travelled thousands of kilometers, has serious epidemic potential and the ability to surprise us".

Nipah was first identified in Malaysia in 1998. It spread to Singapore and more than 100 people were killed in both places. On that occasion, pigs were the virus hosts but they are believed to have caught it from bats.

In India the disease was first reported in 2001 and again six years later, with the two outbreaks claiming 50 lives.

Both times the disease was reported in areas of the eastern state of West Bengal bordering Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has borne the brunt of the disease in recent years, with more than 100 people dying of Nipah since the first outbreak was reported there in 2001.

In Bangladesh in 2004, humans became infected with Nipah after eating date palm sap that had been contaminated by infected fruit bats.

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