A seven-year-old child died of Nipah virus at Ishwardiupazila in Pabna while he was undergoing treatment at the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital on Monday.Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research team came at Ishwardi to perfectly come to test.

The dead MdSowad, son of MdSanwar of Ishwardiupazila in Pabna, was a student of class two at local government primary school.

Sowad drank date juice on Friday morning and felt fever and convulsions.As he fell unconscious, the family members admitted him to the hospital in the afternoon, quoting Rajshahi Medical College Hospital Intensive Care Unit in-charge Abu HenaMostafa Kamal, said Pabna civil surgeon Monishor Chowdhury.

He said that they transferred Sowad to the ICU on Saturday morning as his condition deteriorated.

The child tested positive for Nipah virus on Sunday evening and died on Monday while undergoing treatment at the hospital, according to Monishor.

Earlier, a 35-year-old woman died at the hospital after drinking date juice in the past week, CS added.

According to records, 327 infected people have been identified in the country so far. 232 of them died. The first infection of this virus occurred in the country in 2001. Later in 2004 it was identified as Nipah virus through tests in the United States. The virus was first reported in Malaysia in 1998. However, currently, there are no reports of Nipah virus infection in any other country except Bangladesh.

This dangerous virus is transmitted only in areas where there are palm trees. It is endemic in certain areas and why it spreads to new areas is not known.

IEDCR Director Professor TahminaShirin said, raw date juice and half-eaten fruit of bats should not be consumed. Nipah virus is spread through the urine or saliva of bats.

He said, when bats eat palm juice; then it becomes ‘infected’ by him. People eat the juice raw and get infected. Then through the infected person his family members and acquaintances are infected. Health workers can also be infected through them.

The IEDCR director also said that 71 percent of people infected with Nipah virus die. So avoid consuming raw date juice.

He also said that it may take 8-9 days for Nipah symptoms to appear after consuming contaminated date juice. On the other hand, symptoms appear after 6-11 days after exposure to an already infected patient.

According to IEDCR researchers, drinking date palm juice is safe, as is jaggery made from the juice. The agency recommends washing hands thoroughly with soap after collecting the sap.