The deadly virus: Laxity in countering Nipah can be disastrous

According to the WHO, Nipah is a zoonotic virus transmittable to humans from animals like bats and pigs

By declaring that the Nipah viral disease in Kerala is “not a major outbreak and is only a local occurrence”, the health ministry seems to underrate the potential perils of this scourge. Nipah is one of most lethal viruses with a mortality rate as high as more than 70 per cent. Till now, 16 out of the 18 people who had tested positive for the virus in Kerala have died. It has been listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) among the eight highly hazardous diseases, along with Ebola and Zika, which could trigger global pandemics. Worse still, there is