Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Feb;12(2):235-40.
doi: 10.3201/eid1202.051247.

Nipah virus-associated encephalitis outbreak, Siliguri, India

Mandeep S Chadha  1 , James A Comer, Luis Lowe, Paul A Rota, Pierre E Rollin, William J Bellini, Thomas G Ksiazek, Akhilesh Mishra
Affiliations

Nipah virus-associated encephalitis outbreak, Siliguri, India

Mandeep S Chadha et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2006 Feb.

Abstract

During January and February 2001, an outbreak of febrile illness associated with altered sensorium was observed in Siliguri, West Bengal, India. Laboratory investigations at the time of the outbreak did not identify an infectious agent. Because Siliguri is in close proximity to Bangladesh, where outbreaks of Nipah virus (NiV) infection were recently described, clinical material obtained during the Siliguri outbreak was retrospectively analyzed for evidence of NiV infection. NiV-specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG antibodies were detected in 9 of 18 patients. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays detected RNA from NiV in urine samples from 5 patients. Sequence analysis confirmed that the PCR products were derived from NiV RNA and suggested that the NiV from Siliguri was more closely related to NiV isolates from Bangladesh than to NiV isolates from Malaysia. NiV infection has not been previously detected in India.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Epidemic curve of outbreak of febrile encephalitis in Siliguri, India, January though February 2001, by number of hospital-associated and nonhospital-associated cases and deaths. The vertical, black arrow indicates when barrier methods were introduced for case management.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Sequence of events in the Siliguri (SD) outbreak.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of partial N-gene nucleotide sequences obtained from the Siliguri specimens (by patient number, see Table) to sequences obtained from Nipah virus isolates from Bangladesh (AY988601) and Malaysia (AF212302, AF376747). Letters indicate positions that differ from the reference sequence on the top line, Nipah-malaysia-1. Dots indicate nucleotide identity. R indicates A or G.
Figure 4
Figure 4
A) Comparison of partial M-gene nucleotide sequences of Siliguri specimens to Nipah virus isolates from Bangladesh (Bangladesh-1:AY988601, Bangladesh-2:unpublished) and Malaysia (AF212302). Letters indicate positions that differ from the reference sequence on the top line, Nipah-Malaysia. Dots indicate nucleotide identity. B) Phylogenetic tree based on the sequence alignment shown in panel A.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kumar S. Inadequate research facilities fail to tackle mystery disease. BMJ. 2003;326:12. 10.1136/bmj.326.7379.12/d - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chua KB, Bellini WJ, Rota PA, Harcourt BH, Tamin A, Lam SK, et al. Nipah virus: a recently emergent deadly paramyxovirus. Science. 2000;288:1432–5. 10.1126/science.288.5470.1432 - DOI - PubMed
    1. ICDDRB. Nipah encephalitis outbreak over wide area of western Bangladesh. Health Science Bulletin. 2004;2:7–11.
    1. ICDDRB. Person-to-person transmission of Nipah virus during outbreak in Faridpur District. Health Science Bulletin. 2004;2:5–9.
    1. World Health Organization. Nipah virus outbreak(s) in Bangladesh, January–April 2004. Wkly Epidemiol Rec. 2004;17:168–71. - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources