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| - Fact Check: Viral WHO warning of Nipah virus outbreak in India is two years old
A viral post on social media claims that the World Health Organization has warned of a new Nipah virus outbreak in India, which is deadlier than coronavirus. India Today's AFWA finds the truth.
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India Today Fact Check
The last WHO alert on Nipah in India was issued in 2018. There has been no fresh warning of an outbreak since.
Amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases in India, a viral message on social media claims that the World Health Organization (WHO) has now warned of an outbreak of Nipah virus in India, which is deadlier than coronavirus.
The viral message has been posted by several Facebook users recently. Along with the post, some have shared a link of an article by “The New York Times” titled, “Nipah Virus, Rare and Dangerous, Spreads in India”.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading. The last WHO alert of a Nipah virus outbreak in India was in August 2018.
The archived versions of the posts can be seen here, here and here.
The article by “The New York Times” shared along with the message, was originally published on June 4, 2018. As per this news report, Nipah (NiV) had the potential to turn into an epidemic as it had already killed 17 out of 18 people infected by then in Kerala.
The latest warning from WHO on August 7, 2018, confirmed that till July 17 that year, 19 cases had been reported, of which 17 had died in Kerala. But it also mentioned, “No new cases or deaths have been reported since 1 June 2018 and, as of 30 July, human-to-human transmission of NiV has been contained in Kerala State.”
Nipah is a zoonotic virus, i.e. transmitted from animals to humans, but can also be transmitted through contaminated food or directly between people. In infected people, it causes a range of illnesses from asymptomatic infection to acute respiratory illness and fatal encephalitis.
The fatality rate is quite high for Nipah infection. According to WHO, the case fatality rate is estimated at 40-75 per cent.
Therefore, the viral message saying WHO has now warned about a Nipah outbreak in India is misleading. This is a two-year-old warning and there has been no fresh alert from the global health body.
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