Health scientists have warned of the danger of the "Nipah" virus, stressing that it may cause a pandemic with a lethal rate of up to 75%, which means that it can kill many more people compared to the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
In an interview with the British newspaper " The Sun Online", according to a report published on Saturday, a group of experts said that the Nipah virus, which was first detected in Malaysia in 1999 and carried by fruit bats, may lead to a new pandemic that hits the world and will be "really big."
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified Nipah as one of 10 infectious diseases out of a total of 16 diseases that it said pose a threat to public health while stressing that there are still no research projects by pharmaceutical companies to find a treatment for virus infection.
Studies of the outbreak of this virus, which arrived from Malaysia to Singapore, Bangladesh, and India, showed that the lethality ranges from 45% to 75%.
The incubation period is usually between 4 and 14 days, but in some cases, it reached 45 days.
Symptoms of the infection include fever, headache, muscle pain, vomiting, and sore throat, and this may be followed by dizziness, drowsiness, and change in consciousness, mental confusion, and neurological signs indicating acute encephalitis.
Some people may also suffer from some types of pneumonia and severe respiratory problems, and in severe cases, some may develop encephalitis, and these cases may develop into a coma within 24 to 48 hours, and at the same time, it is possible that the disease proceeds without any symptoms at all.
The director of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky, and a world leader in the study of viruses, Rebecca Dutch, said in an interview with " The Sun Online" that it can happen periodically" and is very likely to be repeated in the future.
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