People in Bangladesh most commonly become infected with Nipah virus by drinking raw date palm sap that has been contaminated by bats during harvest.
In Bangladesh, these bats transmit the virus to humans through raw date palm sap, which the bats are known to lick and urinate in as it is harvested for human consumption.
The results of present investigation show that the relatively low cost and high capabilities of the raw date palm seeds make them potentially attractive adsorbents for the removal of sulfate from aqueous solution.
Patient A reportedly did not have any exposure to identified risk factors for Nipah infection, including drinking raw date palm sap or partially bat eaten fruits, contact with other Nipah patients, climbing trees or contact with bats or sick animals.
Though we identified two bat roosts within three and six kilometers from the outbreak area, there were no significant associations between illness and drinking raw date palm sap, climbing trees, sighting bat in the area of residence or working place, eating fruits picked from the ground or having contact with bats or sick animals (Table 2).
None of these five subsequent cases (Patients B-F) had exposure to any other Nipah patient or patient with fever and altered mental status other than Patient A. They also did not have any history of drinking raw date palm sap or coming in contact with any bat or other sick animal.
These three case-patients did not have any history of consuming raw date palm sap within one month prior to death which has been implicated as a possible route of transmission of Nipah virus directly from its natural reservoir in Bangladesh [12].
Though human-to-human transmission plays an important role in subsequent transmission of Nipah [2], [3], in Bangladesh some of the identified routes of introduction of Nipah virus from its natural reservoir, Pteropus fruit bats, in to humans are though drinking of raw date palm sap contaminated by bats, contact with infected animals and possibly through direct contact with bat secretion[4].
For three probable cases including the index case, we could not identify any known risk factors for Nipah infection such as physical contact with Nipah case-patients, consumption of raw date palm juice, or contact with sick animals or fruit bats.
Statistical of the filtered raw date.
