Test kit for diagnosing Nipah virus to be ready next week - Rospotrebnadzor head Popova

MOSCOW. Sept 9 (Interfax) - A test kit for diagnosing the Nipah virus, detected in India, will be ready next week, head of Russian consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova said.

"There has been information about the Nipah virus in India, and colleagues have said they will have a PCR test kit for diagnosing the disease next week," Popova said at a session of the 4th Forum of Social Innovations in the Regions.

Russia is opening sequencing centers to contain new threats and develop new test kits for emerging viruses, Popova said.

The Nipah virus was detected in the Indian state of Kerala in early September.

The virus can cause severe fever, seizures, and vomiting, and there is no vaccine or cure for it. The only treatment is supportive therapy. According to the World Health Organization, the case fatality rate of the Nipah virus ranges from 40% to 75%. It was first identified in the late 1990s in Malaysia. The virus is transmitted to humans through contact with bats or pigs, and there is inter-human transmission, as well.