Two cases in the eastern state of West Bengal confirmed by Indian authorities that they had contained a Nipah virus outbreak, as several Asian countries stepped up health checks and airport security measures against those travelling in India.

India The Health Ministry reported on Tuesday that two cases of Nipah had been found since December and that all the discovered contacts had been quarantined and tested. The ministry did not disclose information regarding the patients and indicated that 196 contacts were traced, and all of them were negative.

The ministry said that the situation is constantly monitored, and all the necessary actions on the level of public health are established.

Nipah is a zoonotic virus that was initially discovered during an outbreak that happened in the 1990s in Malaysia and is spread via fruit bats, pigs, and human-to-human transmissions. The virus has no vaccine against it, and can result in raging temperatures, convulsions and vomiting. The supportive care is the only therapy that regulates complications and makes patients comfortable.

The coronavirus is much less deadly than the virus that has an estimated fatality rate of between 40 and 75 per cent, as reported by the WHO.

Outside India, there were no reported cases of the virus, but as a precaution, several Asian countries introduced or strengthened screening at airports. This was due to the fact that, after initial media coverage in India indicated that the cases were surging, health authorities claimed that the numbers were speculative and erroneous.

Indonesia and Thailand started more screening of major airports, health declaration, temperature checks and visual monitoring of the arriving passengers. The Department of Disease Control of Thailand reported installing thermal scanners at the arrival gates of direct flights between West Bengal and Bangkok at the Suvarnabhumi Airport.

The Health Ministry of Myanmar suggested that unnecessary travel to West Bengal should be avoided and that those who travel should seek immediate medical attention in case they develop any symptoms within 14 days of having travelled. According to it, the monitoring of fever, which was introduced in the airports during the COVID-19 pandemic, is tightened towards the passengers arriving in India, and laboratory testing capacity and medical supplies are prepared.

State media reported that the Vietnam Health Ministry called on Tuesday on the urgency of food safety practices, and directed local authorities to monitor more at border crossings, health facilities and communities.

China announced that it was reinforcing disease prevention along the borders. State media said that health authorities started to conduct risk assessment and to train their medical personnel more intensively, and to strengthen their surveillance and testing resources.

Previous outbreaks of the Nipah virus have been reported in West Bengal in 2001 and 2007, with the recent outbreak incidents mostly being detected in southern Kerala state. In 2018, the biggest outbreak claimed the lives of 17 individuals in Kerala.