Bangladesh reports first death from Nipah virus this year ( www.yahoo.com )

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh reported on Monday its first fatality this year from the brain-damaging Nipah virus when a man died after drinking raw date juice.

The virus, transmitted to humans through contact with bodily fluids of infected bats, pigs or other people, was first identified in 1999 during an outbreak affecting farmers and others in contact with pigs in Malaysia.

Since then it has led to outbreaks in Bangladesh, India and Singapore, killing more than 160 people in Bangladesh.

The nation's first case of 2024 was reported in Manikganj, some 50 km from the capital Dhaka, said Tahmina Shirin, director of the health ministry's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).