The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday officially designated Nipah virus as a Category 5 notifiable disease, requiring suspected cases to be reported within 24 hours.
The CDC said the decision to elevate Nipah virus to a Category 5 disease reflects ongoing outbreaks abroad and its high fatality rate and transmission risks, aiming to strengthen early warning systems, raise public awareness and ensure rapid response to future cases.
Despite the new classification, no domestic infections have been recorded to date, it said.
Photo: AFP
In a notice to medical institutions, the CDC said patients meeting reporting criteria must be admitted to negative-pressure isolation wards and treated under strict control measures, including contact, droplet and airborne precautions.
Doctors are required to report suspected cases through the national infectious disease reporting system within 24 hours, it said.
Clinical samples — such as nasopharyngeal or throat swabs, or cerebrospinal fluid collected during the symptomatic phase — must be packaged as Category A infectious substances and transported at 2oC to 8oC to the CDC for testing.
Nipah virus is a zoonotic disease transmitted through direct contact with infected pigs or contaminated tissues. Other transmission routes include the consumption of food tainted by fruit bat saliva or urine — such as raw date palm sap or contaminated fruit — and close contact in healthcare or caregiving settings, the CDC said.
More than 750 cases have been recorded globally since the virus was first identified in 1998, CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) said.
Outbreaks have primarily occurred in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Bangladesh and India, with a fatality rate of 40 to 75 percent.
While Bangladesh and India continue to report sporadic outbreaks, Tseng said that no approved treatments or vaccines are available.
Several countries, including Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and India, have already classified Nipah virus infection as a notifiable disease, she said.
Taiwan established testing capabilities for the virus in 2000 and has listed it as a priority surveillance disease since 2018, with no confirmed human or animal cases reported so far, Tseng said.
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