One person died of Nipah virus after consuming raw date palm juice. He died while undergoing treatment at Mohakhali Infectious Disease Hospital in the capital on Sunday. Director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Professor Tahmina Shirin informed this information. He said that the person is a middle-aged man. Pathological analysis revealed that he had consumed raw date palm juice. Professor Tahmina Shirin also said that this is the first death due to Nipah virus this year. The house of the deceased is in Manikganj.
In a meeting organized by IEDCR last December 10 about the risk of Nipah virus, 339 patients have been identified in Bangladesh since 2001 till that time (last December 10), of which 240 patients have died. The outbreak of this disease is seen in the country from December to May. This virus is usually contracted by drinking the raw juice of dates.
The IEDCR meeting also informed that 14 people were infected with Nipah virus in 2023 (as of December 10) and 10 people died out of them. Mortality rate in patient ratio is 71.42 percent. IEDCR Director Professor Tahmina Shireen made an informative presentation on the spread and risk of Nipah virus in the meeting. In the presentation, the professor said that Nipah virus is a deadly virus. The carrier of this virus is Pteropus (fruit-eating) bats. The disease is transmitted to humans from bats. The infection was first detected in humans in Malaysia in 1998.
Tahmina Shirin said that the first outbreak of Nipah virus was identified in Meherpur district in Bangladesh in 2001. Since then, the outbreak of this disease is observed in Bangladesh almost every year. To stay away from this virus, you should avoid drinking raw date juice