People need to stop fraternising with bats, for the love of god.
As always, the fear-mongering media and scientists are hailing the latest bat virus as the ‘next pandemic’, but I wouldn’t believe the hype. There is a new one every week, and none of them come to anything but a few deaths.
However, the virus, introduced to a woman in the Kerala region of India, is fatal in two-thirds of people who catch it. An 18-year-old has died from brain swelling caused by the virus.
The Nipah virus is transmitted through the saliva and droppings of bats. It can then be transmitted via droplets from human to human.
This can make it very contagious if not caught early on. The Nipah virus from bats causes brain swelling and respiratory problems in humans. It’s the respiratory issues that induce coughing and help spread the disease from person to person.
At present, there has only been one other case of the bat virus identified. A 38-year-old woman in Palakkad has been diagnosed with the virus. She is currently in intensive care. There have been a total of 425 other people rounded up as possible contacts with the two infected women. 12 of them are receiving treatment, with five in intensive care.
Shall we Just Ban Bats?
The Nipah virus is introduced to the human population through their droppings and saliva. There have been a lot of viruses identified in bat populations, with many of them transmissible to humans. They can transmit through various methods, including urine, bites, and droppings.
As a result, places with large bat populations are at higher risk of contracting these viruses. Bangladesh, in particular, is susceptible to the Nipah virus that killed the young woman. It is widely studied in this area, and the fatality rate is staggeringly high.
According to John Hopkins, the fatality rate is 75%. The bat virus induces fever and encephalitis, or brain inflammation, often with seizures and coma. Some patients also develop a pneumonia-like respiratory illness. There is currently no treatment for Nipah virus, and the only thing available is supportive care.
It’s obviously not a new pandemic, but it is pretty gross.