Leuna Haque of DOT
A group of scientists discovered the full genome sequence of Nipah virus, isolated from the Pteropus Medius bat samples taken from Bangladesh from January 2011 to April 2014.
The discovery also helped the 15 scientists, including three from International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), to learn about the bat’s procreation and activity in Bangladesh.
The scientists published an article, “Isolation and Full-Genome Characterisation of Nipah Viruses from Bats, Bangladesh” in US science journal Emerging Infectious Diseases on 1 January.
According to the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) of Bangladesh, 303 people were infected in the past 18 years. Among them, 70 per cent died. The survivors suffer from various nervous system complexities.
The genetic traits of the virus resemble with those collected from the bats of other places as well. For example, the genetic sequence of the virus of bats from Sylhet and Lakshmipur are almost similar. The distance between the two districts is around 300 kilometres.