Nepal, Feb. 2 -- Nipah virus, a deadly zoonotic virus, was first reported in Malaysia in 1998. The country documented a total of 265 human cases, including 105 deaths (nearly 40 percent), largely attributed to severe neurological complications. In contrast, when the virus was first identified in India and Bangladesh in 2001, the reported case fatality rate reached nearly 70 percent. Several subsequent outbreaks in these regions have recorded case fatality rates as high as 100 percent. This marked difference in fatality rates between Malaysia and India/Bangladesh raises an important question: Is the Indian variant of the Nipah virus more severe than the Malaysian variant?

Recently, two laboratory-confirmed cases of Nipah virus infection h...