The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that a woman had died in Bangladesh after contracting the Nipah virus.
The woman, aged between 40-50 years, residing in Naogaon District, Rajshahi Division developed symptoms consistent with NiV infection on January 21, including fever, headache, muscle cramps, loss of appetite (anorexia), weakness, and vomiting, followed by hypersalivation, disorientation, and convulsion.
On January 27, she became unconscious and was referred by a local physician to a tertiary hospital. She was admitted to the hospital on January 28, and the Nipah surveillance team collected throat swabs and blood samples. The woman died the same day, WHO said in a statement.
The patient reported repeated consumption of raw date palm sap between 5 and 20 January 2026. Following the confirmed diagnosis, an outbreak investigation team, including One Health stakeholders, started investigations on 30 January.
A total of 35 contact persons has been identified, including three household contact persons 14 community contact persons and 18 hospital contact persons. Samples were collected from six symptomatic contact persons, including three from household, two from communities and one from hospital. All six samples tested negative for NiV infection by PCR and anti-Nipah IgM antibody detection by ELISA. As of February 3, no additional cases have been identified. Contact persons are under monitoring, the statement said.
Bangladesh reported its first case of NiV infection in 2001. Since then, human infections have been reported almost every year. In 2025, four laboratory-confirmed fatal cases were reported from Bangladesh.
Bangladesh borders India and Myanmar, and WHO assesses the risk at the regional level to be low. While there have not been any instances of cross-border transmission by humans previously, the risk remains, given shared ecological corridor for the virus's natural host Pteropus bats and occurrence among domestic animals and humans previously in both countries. However, India has strong capacities and experience of controlling previous NiV outbreaks.
WHO assesses the risk at the global level to be low, as there have been no previous confirmed cases outside Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore.