Nipah virus: Preventing the next outbreak

Table 1 Comparative analysis of Nipah and coronavirus disease 2019

Features	Nipah virus disease	COVID-19
Agent	Nipah virus	SARS-CoV-2
Transmission	Fruit bats to humans, eating contaminated fruit or juice, date palm, fluids from infected animals like pigs, dogs, horses, cats. Few cases of person-to-person transmission	Origin speculated to be from bats or pangolins. Further transmission through respiratory droplets or airborne
Human-to-human transmission	Limited, but can occur through close contact with an infected person	Efficient
Incubation period	4 to 14 days	2 to 14 days
Symptoms	Fever, headache, muscle aches, sore throat, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, acute respiratory syndrome, encephalitis and in severe cases, coma, or death	Fever, dry cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, body aches, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, headache, chills, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea
Severity	Variable, ranging from asymptomatic or mild illness to severe respiratory or neurological symptoms	Variable, ranging from asymptomatic or mild illness to severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome
Case fatality rate	40% to 75%	Generally lower, estimated around 1%-3%
Vaccination	No specific vaccine available	Vaccines available
Treatment	Supportive care to relieve symptoms and prevent complications; no specific antiviral drugs available	Supportive care, oxygen therapy, antiviral drugs like Remdesivir, and in severe cases, corticosteroids and immunomodulators
Preventive measures	Avoiding exposure to sick pigs or bats, avoiding consuming raw date palm sap, culling of infected animals and decontamination of their remains, standard precautions	Vaccination, standard precautions, quarantine, and isolation measures
Global impact	Outbreaks, mainly in Southeast Asia	Recent pandemic

COVID-19: Coronavirus disease 2019; SARS-CoV-2: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.