Abstract

The outbreak of acute encephalitis among pig handlers with high mortality rates in 1988 in Malaysia led to the discovery of a new zoontic infection caused by a paramyxoviridae virus called Nipah virus belonging to the genus henipa virus, a biosafety level-4 pathogen, is transmitted by Pteropus spp. of fruit bats [1-2]. The disease was first reported in the village named Kampung Sungai Nipah village in Malaysia besides infecting human’s virus also infected local pigs simultaneously. These pigs exhibited marked respiratory and neurological disease called “barking pig syndrome” though with lesser morbidity and mortality [3]. Human cases were mostly found in adult men who had been in close proximity to pigs, implying that pigs acted as an amplifying, intermediary host, allowing the virus to spread from bats to humans. The infection had spread to humans and pigs in other parts of Malaysia by February 1999, and this expansion was linked to pig mobility [4-6]. In March 1999, the infection extended to abattoir workers in Singapore because to the migration of pigs [7].