THE Department of Health (DOH) has assured that the country is prepared for an outbreak of the Nipah virus, which has infected several people in West Bengal, India.
The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies Nipah as a priority virus because of its severity and its potential to spread if not quickly contained.
Nipah has a fatality rate of between 40 percent and 75 percent, making it a public health concern.
Last year, the virus killed at least four people in India.
The DOH said Nipah is not new to the Philippines. Seventeen cases were recorded in Sultan Kudarat in 2014.
Nipah is a bat-borne disease transmitted to humans through infected animals, or food contaminated with saliva, urine and excreta of infected animals.
It can also be transmitted directly from person to person through close contact with an infected person, although this kind of transmission is less common.
So far, no vaccine for Nipah has been developed.
There are no signs the virus could trigger a global emergency at this stage, but the Covid pandemic has taught us the painful consequences of complacency.
The world had been slow to react to the threat of Covid-19, and it paid a heavy price. The virus first caught international attention in December 2019, when pneumonia cases of unknown cause were reported in Wuhan, China. The cases were traced to the novel coronavirus, or nCoV, but it took a month before the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
By then the virus was spreading across the planet at an incredible pace. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the virus, which had been rechristened as Covid-19, as a full-blown pandemic.
Countries scrambled to set up strict border controls to keep out Covid-19, but the virus had already established footholds, brought in by travelers who arrived before the restrictions were clamped.
Some government leaders severely underestimated the virus’ potential to wreak havoc. United States President Donald Trump referred to Covid-19 as “Kung Flu.” Former president Rodrigo Duterte joked during his final State of the Nation Address that he must have caught the virus because he was mispronouncing words.
Governments were forced to resort to lockdowns that restricted not only the movement of people but choked economies, heightened food insecurity and strained health care systems.
The pandemic raged for three years before it was declared over in May 2023. By then, about 7 million people had died, and the world had undergone a sea change.
Against this backdrop, the emergence of Nipah cases must be given serious thought.
Because of the absence of a vaccine for the disease, WHO suggests that “the only way to reduce or prevent infection in people is by raising awareness of the risk factors and supporting people with measures they can take to reduce exposure to the virus.”
“Case management should focus on the delivery of timely, supportive care and be supported by a good laboratory system. Intensive supportive care is recommended to treat severe respiratory and neurologic complications,” the UN agency said.
In April last year, WHO member states ratified the Pandemic Agreement, a comprehensive response to future global health threats.
At the heart of the pact is the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing system, which is supposed to see to it that low- and middle-income countries will get their fair share of vaccines, treatments and diagnostics when the next pandemic hits.
The agreement is scheduled for final approval on May 1, but negotiations are stuck over the sharing scheme. Under the treaty, manufacturers would have to share only 20 percent of any vaccines, therapeutics or diagnostics they produce.
Developing countries consider 20 percent as too small a share. They also stressed they would be better benefited by technology transfer, including the licensing of medicines and vaccines.
Such a sharing mechanism needs to be in place soon; according to the Lancet Global Health 2050 Commission, “there is a roughly 50-percent chance that a new pandemic causing 25 million or more deaths will occur between now and 2050.”
The new Nipah cases remind us that deadly diseases still lurk in the dark recesses where research has not cast a light, ready to pounce us again.