Nipah virus claims 5 lives this year: Home Minister

Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque has said eight people were infected with Nipah virus this year. Of them, five people died.

The Health Minister came up with the information at the conference room of the Secretariat over the outbreak of Nipah virus on Sunday (January 29).

He said, “We have so far received eight patients this year; five have died…drinking raw date juice, contaminated by bats carrying Nipah virus. Some 70 percent people who are infected with the virus become the death victims. Nipah virus infected people can transmit the disease. This is concerning.”

Urging people not to drink raw date juice, the minister said people should avoid eating fruits which are half-eaten by birds.

“There is no cure for Nipah infection. There is no medicine or vaccines. Treatment is based on symptoms as like as the treatment of Covid-19,” Zahid Maleque said.

The government has stepped up an awareness campaign among people in this regard, he mentioned.

A special unit, equipped with ICU, has been prepared at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Dhaka’s Mohakhali for providing services to the patients, according to the minister.