Father of first nipah victim dies

The father of this year’s first nipah victim has died after struggling for life at a Dhaka Hospital.

“He died last night,” said Prof Mahmudur Rahman, Director of the Institution of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research that monitors the bat-borne fatal virus.

With the latest death, the toll from nipah this year has gone up to 10 from 12 infections.

The virus struck back on Jan 22, killing an 8-year-old boy in Dhaka and leaving his father critically ill.

The eight-member family drank raw date sap brought from Bhaluka on Jan 11 and two of them fell ill six days later.

The virus infects a person only after drinking raw date sap and can get passed on to other people later, through contact.

On an average, it usually takes seven to eight days between the exposure and manifestation of the symptoms — fever, altered mental status and seizure.

It is a major cause of public health concern in Bangladesh since 2001, as it breaks out every year during Jan-Apr. The usual fatality rate of the virus is close to 80 percent.

The government has heightened its vigilance and awareness campaign in the prevalent 21 districts, mostly northern districts, after witnessing an ‘unusual spike’ in this year’s infections that began with a new district Bhaluka, near Dhaka.

“Changing habit (drinking raw sap) is also difficult,” the Director said.

An ICDDR,B study using infrared cameras found that fruit bats perch on the jars, put up on trees to collect the sap, and try to drink the juice. They also urinate in the pot.

The Pteropus bats’ saliva and urine carry the virus. But it gets destroyed if the sap is boiled. The virus is killed at 70 degrees Celsius temperature.