"Dr. Yong" introduces the "Nipah virus," emphasizing it is not a new epidemic, has never been detected in Thais, but has a high fatality rate of 40-50% and no direct treatment. He advises the best prevention is to stop transmission from animals to humans rather than treating the disease.
On 24 January 2026, Professor Dr. Yong Poovorawan, head of the Clinical Virology Specialty Center at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, posted an explanation about the "Nipah" virus currently spreading in India.
He stated that the Nipah virus is not new and has been known for a long time. It first broke out in 1998 in Malaysia, causing over 100 deaths. That outbreak was quickly studied, revealing it was triggered by El Niño conditions.
During drought and extensive forest burning in Sumatra, Indonesia, smoke is believed to have caused bats to migrate north into Malaysia (a hypothesis). The bats ate fruit, which fell into pigsties; pigs then ate the fruit, leading to an outbreak among pigs and subsequently humans. The first cases occurred along the Sungai Nipah riverbank—"Sungai" means river—hence the virus and disease were named after the Nipah river.
During that outbreak, over one million pigs were culled, and hundreds of patients were infected. Almost all patients had contact with pigs, such as slaughtering, raising, or transporting them. The disease spread southward in Malaysia into Singapore but did not spread north due to the predominantly Muslim population in northern Malaysia and the southern border provinces of Thailand acting as a barrier, preventing its spread into Thailand. After culling over one million pigs, the outbreak was controlled. It is well known that the virus resides in bats, which can fly long distances.
Since then, sporadic outbreaks have occurred, especially in South Asia and some other countries, mostly as isolated cases. The disease is known to have a high fatality rate.
The current outbreak in India, as known, had sporadic cases before but not as clustered as now. Transmission usually occurs from bats to humans. The disease can spread between humans via contact with secretions, but this is rare, so widespread outbreaks are uncommon. It remains classified as a zoonotic disease.
Symptoms include high fever, body aches, and shortness of breath, with a short incubation period of about 4-5 days. The disease progresses rapidly and severely. There is no direct treatment; care is supportive, which results in a high fatality rate of 40-50%.
The best prevention is to avoid animal-to-human transmission by not contacting wild animals, especially bats; avoiding fruit with animal bite marks or fallen fruit; washing fruit thoroughly before eating; peeling fruit, especially during mango season, is advised. Avoid contact with sick animals, especially pigs and bats, and maintain strict personal hygiene and cleanliness.
However, panic is unnecessary as the disease has never been detected in Thais. Bats carry the virus without symptoms. Human-to-human transmission can occur but is much less common than other diseases and requires direct contact with patient secretions. It remains classified as a dangerous communicable disease.
Information courtesy of the Facebook page Yong Poovorawan.