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About the Authors:
Nusrat Homaira
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliations International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB), Dhaka, Bangladesh, Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research, (IEDCR), Dhaka, Bangladesh
Mahmudur Rahman
Affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research, (IEDCR), Dhaka, Bangladesh
M. Jahangir Hossain
Affiliation: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB), Dhaka, Bangladesh
Nazmun Nahar
Affiliation: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB), Dhaka, Bangladesh
Rasheda Khan
Affiliation: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB), Dhaka, Bangladesh
Mostafizur Rahman
Affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research, (IEDCR), Dhaka, Bangladesh
Goutam Podder
Affiliation: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB), Dhaka, Bangladesh
Kamrun Nahar
Affiliation: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB), Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dawlat Khan
Affiliation: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB), Dhaka, Bangladesh
Emily S. Gurley
Affiliation: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB), Dhaka, Bangladesh
Pierre E. Rollin
Affiliation: Special Pathogens Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
James A. Comer
Affiliation: Special Pathogens Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Thomas G. Ksiazek
Current address: Department of Pathology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America
Affiliation: Special Pathogens Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Stephen P. Luby
Affiliations International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB), Dhaka, Bangladesh, Special Pathogens Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Introduction
Among the 122 Nipah cases identified between 2001 to 2007 in Bangladesh, 87 (71%) died and 62 (51%) developed illness following person to person transmission [1]. One of the distinct features of Nipah virus epidemiology in Bangladesh is that only certain case-patients apparently spread the disease to others. In a previous review of cases in Bangladesh, we identified only nine Nipah spreaders and each of them spread the disease to a mean of seven persons (range 1–22). All of the Nipah spreaders died [1]. 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...