Sri Lanka, Feb. 6 -- Sri Lanka has strengthened its preparedness to detect and respond to a potential outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus (NiV) with health authorities stepping up surveillance and laboratory readiness amid growing regional concerns.

The Medical Research Institute (MRI), the country's premier laboratory, has upgraded its testing capacity with the latest technology to detect the Nipah virus, enabling early identification of suspected cases, according to an informed source at MRI.

Nipah virus is a highly infectious zoonotic disease that can spread from animals to humans and also through human-to-human contact. Fruit bats are known to be the natural hosts of the virus.

The disease was first identified in 1988 during an outb...