Despite that, several Asian countries have started screening passengers arriving from India at some international airports \u2013 including at Bangkok and Phuket, in Thailand, and Changi Airport in Singapore.<\/p>\n
Screening measures are also being carried out at Kathmandu airport in Nepal and at land border points with India, according to the BBC.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand say they are monitoring the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this stage, the World Health Organisation considers the risk of international disease spread to be low,\u201d they said in a joint statement to the Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ministry of Health is monitoring the spread of Nipah virus overseas and provides updates to the National Public Health Service to inform its screening and detection work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about any potential changes at New Zealand\u2019s borders, namely our international airports, they said the National Public Health Service does not screen specifically for the Nipah virus at our border.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are systems in place to ensure any traveller who arrives in New Zealand unwell is checked and managed appropriately to the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Epidemiologist Michael Baker said there was little potential for the virus to reach New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn New Zealand, we really shouldn\u2019t be at all concerned about this infection because it\u2019s got animal reservoirs,\u201d the University of Otago professor said.<\/p>\n
Human infection happened after contact with fruit bats, he said, and they are not native to New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cFruit bats \u2013 they can feed on fruit, so they can contaminate the environment. That\u2019s also the result in human infections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re direct infections. We call that a spillover infection from an animal reservoir … infection from animals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indian flying foxes have been known to carry the Nipah virus. Photo \/ 123RF<\/p>\n
Put to him that this was how Covid-19 started, Baker acknowledged that like Nipah, Covid is also a zoonotic virus \u2013 an infectious disease passed from animals to humans.<\/p>\n
However, there was \u201clittle potential\u201d that this would cause a pandemic, Baker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are hundreds of zoonotic infections in the world. Most pandemics start as spillover infections from animal reservoirs \u2013 that\u2019s the main source of pandemics.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut most of the time, humans are what we call a dead-end host. So we get infected and, if it\u2019s a new zoonotic infection, there\u2019s often a high fatality risk \u2013 but very few of them progress to easy human-to-human transmission.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think the world is quite sensitised to these infections. It\u2019s why we need to get on top of any new viral infection or any infection from animals that we haven\u2019t seen before.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery few infections have great potential for transmission between people \u2013 and this one doesn\u2019t at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has not released any specific travel advice on its SafeTravel website. MFAT has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n
However, Baker said anyone travelling to India, particularly to West Bengal, where the positive cases were found, should take extra precautions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s yet another reason to avoid contact with bats.\u201d <\/p>\n