Ulog: It is More Painful for the Loving Parents to see Their Child in Pain

We rushed to the hospital yesterday due to the fever and runny-nose of my 1 year and 5 months-old daughter. I am so worried about her on and off fever with cough and runny-nose since there is an issue on Nipah virus here in my place and it already claimed 10 lives as of this writing and more than 40 that were put into quarantine.

Nipah Virus is a new type of virus that is coming from the bats. Humans were became infected with this infectious virus through consuming a food that has been contaminated by the infected animals. This virus spreads through human-to-human transmission by close contacts with their secretions and excretions.

Nipah virus (NiV) infection is a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans. The natural host of the virus are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae Family, Pteropus genus.

NiV was first identified during an outbreak of disease that took place in Kampung Sungai Nipah, Malaysia in 1998. On this occasion, pigs were the intermediate hosts. However, in subsequent NiV outbreaks, there were no intermediate hosts. In Bangladesh in 2004, humans became infected with NiV as a result of consuming date palm sap that had been contaminated by infected fruit bats. Human-to-human transmission has also been documented, including in a hospital setting in India.

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Symptoms

The usual signs and symptoms if someone was infected with this disease were:

• Fever
• sore throat
• headaches
• vomiting and muscle pain

The infection progresses to acute respiratory infection (mild to severe) causing interference in breathing. During this phase, people experience atypical pneumonia and acute respiratory distress, which further leads to severe problems.

It further advances to fatal encephalitis, which means causing inflammation of the brain tissue. The symptoms further lead to drowsiness, dizziness, altered consciousness and neurological signs. In severe cases, seizures and encephalitis occur, progressing to a state of coma within 24 to 48 hours.

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Prevention and Treatment

This infectious virus can be prevented by following the things that are listed below:

• Avoid close (unprotected) physical contact with infected people
• Wear NH95-grade and higher masks
• Wash hands regularly with soap
• Avoid consuming partly eaten fruits or unpasteurised fruit juices
• Avoid being around anima pens
• Boil freshly collected date palm juice before consuming
• Thoroughly wash and peel fruits before consuming
• Maintain your and children's personal hygiene
• Cover your household properly

Currently, there is no vaccine or drug available for humans or animals. The primary treatment is intensive supportive care for people suffering from severe respiratory and neurologic complications.

From contracting the disease to the onset of the symptoms, the incubation period ranges between 4 and 14 days. In some case, an incubation period of 45 days has also been reported.

People are expected to make full recovery after surviving acute encephalitis. However, survivors have shown long-term neurological conditions like seizure disorder and personality changes. After recovery, a small number of people are seen to have relapsed or developed delayed onset encephalitis.

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I am still thankful that my baby is not infected by this virus. Her fever is just a normal one and there's no need to worry. As for now, she is recovering from her fever and cough. It is very difficult for the loving parents to see their precious child in pain and sick. If it is only possible that we can take the pain from our child and transferred it to us, I will gladly take it - all loving parents will surely understand this.

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