nipah virus where is it found
Nipah virus is mainly found in South and Southeast Asia, especially in areas where fruit bats of the genus Pteropus live and come into contact with humans or domestic animals.
Where Nipah virus is found
- Core known outbreak areas:
- Bangladesh and eastern India (notably West Bengal and Kerala) have reported repeated human outbreaks and are considered key hotspots.
* Malaysia and Singapore were involved in the first recognized large outbreak in 1998–1999, linked to pig farms and fruit bats.
- Wider at‑risk region (predicted or bat evidence):
- Large parts of South and Southeast Asia show environmental conditions suitable for Nipah virus circulation, including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, parts of southern China, and some nearby countries.
* Evidence of related henipavirus infection in _Pteropus_ bats has been found wherever these bats have been studied, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Myanmar, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Madagascar.
- Reservoir and transmission context:
- The natural reservoir is fruit bats (Pteropus spp.), which can shed virus in saliva, urine, or partially eaten fruit that can then infect pigs or humans.
* Human cases tend to occur where people live close to roosting bats, consume fresh date palm sap contaminated by bats, or have close contact with infected animals or patients.
Quick mini‑story example
Imagine a village in rural Bangladesh where date palm sap is collected overnight in open pots tied high on the trees. Fruit bats visit at night, licking the sweet sap and sometimes urinating into the containers. The next morning, people drink the raw sap. In some winters, this simple tradition has led to clusters of Nipah virus cases when sap became contaminated, showing how closely the virus’s presence is tied to bat habitats and local customs.
TL;DR: Nipah virus is not worldwide; it is mainly associated with Pteropus fruit bats and is found in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Singapore, and a broader belt of South and Southeast Asia where these bats live and interact with people and domestic animals.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.