New and deadly viruses passed through sweet food and domestic animals

Nipah virus is a new and deadly brain and lung disease that emerged from Singapore and Malaysia ten years ago. It is now spreading into rural India and Bangladesh killing up to three-quarters of the people who become infected in some outbreaks, scientists heard today at the Society for General Microbiology’s 162nd meeting being held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

“People are catching this disease by drinking date palm juice or probably by eating fruit contaminated by the virus, or through contact with infected animals. We have seen nine outbreaks in Bangladesh since 2001, which killed 40-100% of the people who were infected”, says Dr Jahangir Hossain, a scientist working in the Dhaka Hospital at the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research in Bangladesh (ICDDR,B).

Fruit bats are a natural reservoir of Nipah virus, and the first outbreaks in Singapore and Malaysia started when pigs on farms ate fruit which had been bitten by infected bats and dropped near their pens. The pigs developed coughs and breathing difficulties, and an epidemic spread across the Asian peninsula due to the pig trade. Pig farmers and abattoir workers became infected from sick pigs.

“Three outbreaks in Bangladesh were caused when people ate fresh date palm sap, a local sweet delicacy, which had been contaminated by bats.” says Dr Jahangir Hossain. “Because both people and animals in Bangladesh often eat fresh date palm sap and fruits which have been bitten by bats, contaminated food and domestic animals form an important transmission pathway for Nipah virus to infect people”.

The researchers have been trying to discover the way Nipah virus outbreaks start and to identify the factors which could help prevent virus transmission in the future. The large outbreak in pigs in Malaysia and Singapore caused the biggest outbreak in humans so far. In one outbreak in Bangladesh, people became infected after contact with sick cows, and close contact with pig herds was associated with virus transmission in another outbreak.

“We are working with local date palm sap collectors to learn about traditional practices that prevent bats from getting at and contaminating the sap”, says Dr Jahangir Hossain. “If we can identify the factors that allow the virus to be passed from bats to humans so frequently, we might be able to help intervene and interfere with the transmission pathways. Current efforts should focus on restricting the consumption of fruit bitten by bats, restricting human contact with sick animals, and protecting date palm sap from contamination by bat secretions”.

Source: Society for General Microbiology

   

• Antryg - Apr 03, 2008
  • Rank: 4.3 / 5 (3)
  there wouldn't be *any* traditional Bangladeshi practice that prevented outbreaks, if it hadn't *been* in Bangladesh before 10 years ago, eh?
  
  Also, it's entirely possible that the traditional/aboriginal people of Singapore either
  a) didn't eat date-palm-sap, or
  b) had developed some immunity to the virus, or
  c) periodically got nearly-wiped-out and were unable to do anything about it.
  
  The only other observation ( of mine ). . .
  farming pigs seems to be a damn-bad idea.
  "asian-flu" is almost invariably a result of some virus mixing-up in farmed pigs.
  
  Now this.
  
  The Jewish tradition ( and others ) was right about not bothering with 'em, methinks: the long-term-costs are too high.
  
  Cheers.
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• SDMike - Apr 03, 2008
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  The opportunities for problems in the US with the large swine "confinements" just boggles the imagination!
  
  I love pork but I think the Bible and Koran are right.
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• ontheinternets - Apr 03, 2008
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  I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with a post suggesting that the Bible and Koran are right on a science site.
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• Argiod - Apr 04, 2008
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  I've eaten pork all my 61 years with no ill effect. But then, I'm living in a country where there is a high level of concern over the sanitary handling of meat and other food products. In the countries where Kosher laws originated, and people aren't as fussy about such things as 'cleanliness', or due to living in a desert environment where it is difficult to impossible to maintain the level of clean, I certainly would consider leaving the poor pig alone.
  Antryg: Asian Flu doesn't come from pigs; it comes from poultry. But sanitation issues still apply. If the poultry were handled better, and they had the antibiotics we use here in the US, the annual outbreak of flu would certainly deminish noticably.
  
  Of course, this is just my opinion; I could be wrong.
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