Effectiveness of Structured Teaching Program on Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Nipah Virus Infection and Its Prevention

Aim: A study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge and attitude regarding nipah virus infection and its prevention among 3rd years nursing, students Khammam, Telangana. Objective: Objectives were to describe the socio demographic variables, to assess the pre- test levels of knowledge and attitude scores, to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on levels of knowledge and attitude scores, to find out the association between the post- test levels of knowledge and attitude scores of 3rd year Nursing students, with their selected socio demographic variables. Methodology: Quantitative evaluative research approach was used for this study. The study was conducted at Mamata School and college of nursing, Khammam, Telangana. The sample comprised of 50, 3rd year nursing students and sample was selected by random sampling technique. The data was collected by self-administered questionnaire. Results: The results revealed that Knowledge mean for pretest and post-test were 11.14 and 18.26 respectively. The standard deviation for pre-test and post-test were 0.41 and 2.06 respectively. The mean difference was 1.65 Hence the calculated ‘t’ value 12.53 is greater than table value 3.35. It indicates structured teaching programme was effective at p<0.05 level. Conclusion: The study concluded that most of the respondents had moderately adequate knowledge before educational intervention and majority of them increase that is adequate knowledge after educational intervention. There is a significant difference between pretest and post- test knowledge levels and attitude scores, which indicates that there is a need to conduct educational programmes to improve their knowledge regarding Nipah virus infection and its prevention.

Nipah virus detection at bat roosts following spillover events in Bangladesh, 2012-2019

Knowledge of the dynamics and genetic diversity of Nipah virus circulating in bats and at the human-animal interface is limited by current sampling efforts, which produce few detections of viral RNA. We report on a series of investigations at bat roosts identified near human Nipah cases in Bangladesh between 2012 and 2019. Pooled bat urine samples were collected from 23 roosts; seven roosts (30%) had at least one sample with Nipah RNA detected from the first visit. In subsequent visits to these seven roosts, RNA was detected in bat urine up to 52 days after the presumed exposure of the human case, although the probability of detection declined rapidly with time. These results suggest that rapidly deployed investigations of Nipah virus shedding from bat roosts near human cases could increase the success of viral sequencing compared to background surveillance and enhance our understanding of Nipah virus ecology and evolution.

EXPEDITIOUS RESPONSE TO EPIDEMICS: THE CHRONICLE OF NIPAH IN KERALA

Kerala witnessed a catastrophic outbreak of the Nipah virus (NiV) in May 2018, with a fatality rate of 40-75 per cent. The Nipah virus is recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a significant public health concern, and it's one among the priority diseases for accelerated R&D due to the severe lack of available countermeasures against it. There is no vaccine or cure for the infection. The state of Kerala showed an exemplary response to the outbreak. This involved rapid and effective dissemination of necessary precautions to the broader public. Internet social media played a crucial role in spreading these messages. Although the disease claimed 21 lives, it could have been a lot worse if the state had not taken the measures for proper mitigation. This work gives a brief overview of the Nipah virus, followed by a comprehensive outline of the Kerala outbreak. Community and individual responses to the Nipah outbreak have been analysed to illustrate how various groups and individuals, from health care and tourism departments to religious leaders, played a role in successfully eradicating the virus. Kerala's experience in containing epidemics is expected to become a reference point for other states and regions that may find similar situations.

Assessment of Post Vaccination Symptoms Following COVID-19 Vaccination in India: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study

Introduction: The recent examples of newly emerged diseases that causes alarming situation globally include H1N1, Congo Hemorrhagic fever, Ebola virus diseases, Nipah Virus Infection, Lassa Fever and newly declared global emergency pandemic SARS nCOVID-19 infection. Since its emergence, it has spread around the globe. It tends to spread by the inhalation of the respiratory aerosols, direct human contact. Materials and Methods: This analytical study was carried out among the healthcare workers and people who received either of Covishield or Covaxin. The online survey questionnaire was prepared and data obtained through the responses to the survey proforma. Results: 86.17% respondents were above 40 years, 69.15% males and 30.85% were females. 89.36% were vaccinated with Covishield and 10.64% by Covaxin. 75.53% respondents experienced post vaccination symptoms; commonest were the local pain at injection site (28.72%), fever (12.76%), Myalgia (12.77%). The symptoms were found more in respondents with any of co-morbid condition. Discussion: Covishield was used more commonly than Covaxin in study samples. The symptoms following vaccination were more common in 40-60 age group and persons with co-morbid conditions.

Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala state, India amidst of COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundWe report here a Nipah virus (NiV) outbreak in Kozhikode district of Kerala state, India which had caused fatal encephalitis in an adolescent male and the outbreak response which led to the successful containment of the disease and the related investigations.MethodsQuantitative real-time RT-PCR, ELISA based antibody detection and whole genome sequencing were performed to confirm the Nipah virus infection. Contacts of the index case were traced and isolated based on risk categorization. Bats from the areas near the epicenter of the outbreak were sampled for throat swabs, rectal swabs and blood samples for Nipah virus screening by real time RT-PCR and anti-Nipah virus bat IgG ELISA. Plaque reduction neutralization test was performed for the detection of neutralizing antibodies.ResultsNipah viral RNA and anti-NiV IgG antibodies were detected in the serum of the index case. Rapid establishment of an onsite NiV diagnostic facility and contact tracing helped in quick containment of the outbreak. NiV sequences retrieved from the clinical specimen of the index case formed a sub-cluster with the earlier reported Nipah I genotype sequences from India with more than 95% similarity. Anti-NiV IgG positivity could be detected in 21% of Pteropus medius and 37.73% of Rousettus leschenaultia. Neutralizing antibodies against NiV could be detected in P.medius.ConclusionsStringent surveillance and awareness campaigns needs to be implemented in the area to reduce human-bat interactions and minimize spill over events which can lead to sporadic outbreaks of NiV.

Insights into Paramyxovirus Nucleocapsids from Diverse Assemblies

All paramyxoviruses, which include the mumps virus, measles virus, Nipah virus, Newcastle disease virus, and Sendai virus, have non-segmented single-stranded negative-sense RNA genomes. These RNA genomes are enwrapped throughout the viral life cycle by nucleoproteins, forming helical nucleocapsids. In addition to these helical structures, recombinant paramyxovirus nucleocapsids may occur in other assembly forms such as rings, clam-shaped structures, and double-headed nucleocapsids; the latter two are composed of two single-stranded helices packed in a back-to-back pattern. In all of these assemblies, the neighboring nucleoprotein protomers adopt the same domain-swapping mode via the N-terminal arm, C-terminal arm, and recently disclosed N-hole. An intrinsically disordered region in the C-terminal domain of the nucleoproteins, called the N-tail, plays an unexpected role in regulating the transition among the different assembly forms that occurs with other viral proteins, especially phosphoprotein. These structures, together with the helical nucleocapsids, significantly enrich the structural diversity of the paramyxovirus nucleocapsids and help explain the functions of these diverse assemblies, including RNA genome protection, transcription, and replication, as well as encapsulation.

Chimeric Fusion (F) and Attachment (G) Glycoprotein Antigen Delivery by mRNA as a Candidate Nipah Vaccine

Nipah virus (NiV) represents a significant pandemic threat with zoonotic transmission from bats-to-humans with almost annual regional outbreaks characterized by documented human-to-human transmission and high fatality rates. Currently, no vaccine against NiV has been approved. Structure-based design and protein engineering principles were applied to stabilize the fusion (F) protein in its prefusion trimeric conformation (pre-F) to improve expression and increase immunogenicity. We covalently linked the stabilized pre-F through trimerization domains at the C-terminus to three attachment protein (G) monomers, forming a chimeric design. These studies detailed here focus on mRNA delivery of NiV immunogens in mice, assessment of mRNA immunogen-specific design elements and their effects on humoral and cellular immunogenicity. The pre-F/G chimera elicited a strong neutralizing antibody response and a superior NiV-specific Tfh and other effector T cell response compared to G alone across both the mRNA and protein platforms. These findings enabled final candidate selection of pre-F/G Fd for clinical development.

Breakdown of a Nonlinear Stochastic Nipah Virus Epidemic Models through Efficient Numerical Methods

Nipah virus (NiV) is a zoonotic virus (transmitted from animals to humans), which can also be transmitted through contaminated food or directly between people. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, the transmission of Nipah virus infection varies from animals to humans or humans to humans. The case fatality rate is estimated at 40% to 75%. The most infected regions include Cambodia, Ghana, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Philippines, and Thailand. The Nipah virus model is categorized into four parts: susceptible (S), exposed (E), infected (I), and recovered (R). Methods: The structural properties such as dynamical consistency, positivity, and boundedness are the considerable requirements of models in these fields. However, existing numerical methods like Euler–Maruyama and Stochastic Runge–Kutta fail to explain the main features of the biological problems. Results: The proposed stochastic non-standard finite difference (NSFD) employs standard and non-standard approaches in the numerical solution of the model, with positivity and boundedness as the characteristic determinants for efficiency and low-cost approximations. While the results from the existing standard stochastic methods converge conditionally or diverge in the long run, the solution by the stochastic NSFD method is stable and convergent over all time steps. Conclusions: The stochastic NSFD is an efficient, cost-effective method that accommodates all the desired feasible properties.