Two suspected cases of Nipah virus infection registered in West Bengal

Two suspected cases of Nipah virus infection have been registered among health workers in West Bengal. It is a highly infectious zoonotic virus, which was first identified in the year 1998-99 in Kampung Sungai Nipah, Malaysia.

• Two suspected cases of Nipah virus infection among health workers in West Bengal have activated a prompt public health response at the state and central level, which highlights India’s preparedness towards high-risk zoonotic diseases.
• In North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, the condition of two patients remained serious even on 13 January, 2026. They are being treated in a private healthcare facility in Barasat city, the same hospital where both patients used to work.
• The Centre has already deployed the National Joint Outbreak Response Team on 12 January, 2026. This team includes experts from All India Institute of Health and Public Hygiene, Kolkata; National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune; National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), Chennai; AIIMS-Kalyani; and the Wildlife Division under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Nipah virus (NiV):

• It is a highly infectious zoonotic virus, which was first identified in the year 1998-99 in Kampung Sungai Nipah, Malaysia.
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this virus is transmitted from animals to humans, in which fruit bats (Pteropodidae) act as the natural reservoir and pigs are the intermediate host.
• This virus belongs to the Henipavirus genus of the Paramyxoviridae family. It has the ability of human-to-human transmission, which makes it a serious public health risk and requires rapid surveillance and prevention.
• India and Nipah outbreaks: India has seen Nipah outbreaks in West Bengal (2007) and Kerala (2018, 2023 and 2025), which makes early identification, contact tracing and prompt medical response extremely important for public health preparedness.