Another Nipah outbreak in India: What do we know about this virus and how to stop it?

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/09/15/ [login to see] /another-nipah-outbreak-in-india-what-do-we-know-about-this-virus-and-how-to-stop
The Southern Indian state of Kerala is now battling another deadly outbreak of the Nipah virus, its fourth since 2018. Authorities were alerted to the outbreak after two deaths attributed to the virus. A 49-year-old man named Mohammed Ali, who lived in the village of Maruthonkara, died on August 30, and 40-year-old Mangalatt Haris, who lived in the town of Ayanchery, died on September 11.

On September 13, test results confirmed that both men had died of Nipah. Authorities tested for the virus from routine nose swabs. A combination of flu-like and neurological symptoms — headache, fever, cough, acute respiratory distress and seizures — alerted them to test for the virus.

The virus, first identified among pig farmers in Malaysia in 1999, likely jumped to humans at that time from infected pigs. But there was no human-human transmission noted during the Malaysian outbreaks, says Dr. Thekkumkar Surendran Anish, associate professor for community medicine at the Government Medical College at Manjeri, Kerala, who is leading the state's surveillance team and who spoke to NPR about the situation.