Foodborne transmission of Nipah virus, Bangladesh

We investigated an outbreak of encephalitis in Tangail District, Bangladesh. We defined case-patients as persons from the outbreak area in whom fever developed with new onset of seizures or altered mental status from December 15, 2004, through January 31, 2005. Twelve persons met the definition; 11...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Emerging infectious diseases Vol. 12; no. 12; pp. 1888 - 1894
Main Authors:	Luby, Stephen P, Rahman, Mahmudur, Hossain, M Jahangir, Blum, Lauren S, Husain, M Mushtaq, Gurley, Emily, Khan, Rasheda, Ahmed, Be-Nazir, Rahman, Shafiqur, Nahar, Nazmun, Kenah, Eben, Comer, James A, Ksiazek, Thomas G
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases 01-12-2006 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Subjects:	Adolescent Adult Aged Aged, 80 and over Animals Bangladesh Bangladesh - epidemiology Case-Control Studies Child Child, Preschool Chiroptera Chiroptera - virology Disease Outbreaks Disease transmission Encephalitis Encephalitis, Viral - blood Encephalitis, Viral - epidemiology Encephalitis, Viral - transmission Encephalitis, Viral - virology Epidemiology Female Food Microbiology Foodborne diseases Health aspects Henipavirus Infections - blood Henipavirus Infections - epidemiology Henipavirus Infections - transmission Henipavirus Infections - virology Humans Immunoenzyme Techniques Immunoglobulin G - blood Immunoglobulin M - blood Interviews as Topic Male Middle Aged Nipah Virus Nipah Virus - immunology Nipah Virus - isolation & purification Bangladesh
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Summary:	We investigated an outbreak of encephalitis in Tangail District, Bangladesh. We defined case-patients as persons from the outbreak area in whom fever developed with new onset of seizures or altered mental status from December 15, 2004, through January 31, 2005. Twelve persons met the definition; 11 (92%) died. Serum specimens were available from 3; 2 had immunoglobulin M antibodies against Nipah virus by capture enzyme immunoassay. We enrolled 11 case-patients and 33 neighborhood controls in a case-control study. The only exposure significantly associated with illness was drinking raw date palm sap (64% among case-patients vs. 18% among controls, odds ratio [OR] 7.9, p = 0.01). Fruit bats (Pteropus giganteus) are a nuisance to date palm sap collectors because the bats drink from the clay pots used to collect the sap at night. This investigation suggests that Nipah virus was transmitted from P. giganteus to persons through drinking fresh date palm sap.
ISSN:	1080-6040 1080-6059
DOI:	10.3201/eid1212.060732