A One Health approach to understanding and managing Nipah virus outbreaks

Yadav PD 1 , Baid K 2 , Patil DY 1 , Shirin T 3 , Rahman MZ 4 , Peel AJ 5 Show all authors , Epstein JH 6 , Montgomery JM 7 , Plowright RK 8 , Salje H 9 , Gurley ES 10 , Satter SM 4 , Banerjee A 11

Affiliations 

  • 1 Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV), Pune, India
  • 2 Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
  • 3 Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • 4 Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • 5 Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia
  • 6 EcoHealth Alliance, New York, NY, USA
  • 7 Viral Special Pathogens Branch, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
  • 8 Department of Public and Ecosystem Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
  • 9 Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • 10 Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
  • 11 Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. arinjay.banerjee@usask.ca
Nat Microbiol, 2025 Jun;10(6):1272-1281.
PMID: 40437297 DOI: 10.1038/s41564-025-02020-9

Abstract

Nipah virus (NiV) is a zoonotic paramyxovirus belonging to the genus Henipavirus, which infects Pteropus bat species in Southeast and South Asia. Since its discovery in the late 1990s in Malaysia, NiV has caused outbreaks in humans in Singapore, Bangladesh, India and the Philippines. The spillover pathway for the most recent NiV outbreak in 2023 in Kerala, India, remains speculative. NiV causes serious disease in infected humans, with a mean case-fatality rate of 70%, and no approved treatment or vaccines exist. Humans have been infected directly from bats through shared food or through infected bridging hosts, including pigs and horses, although other spillover pathways may exist. Here, we review the pathways of NiV spillover and transmission, highlighting areas needing further research. We emphasize the importance of collaborative and multidisciplinary efforts both in the laboratory and in the field, and the implementation of a One Health strategy to prevent future epidemics.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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