By Mubasher Buhari and Francisco Guaracio
LAHORE/HANOI, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Pakistani authorities ordered increased screening of people entering the country for signs of infection with the deadly Nipah virus after two cases were confirmed in India, adding to a number of Asian countries tightening controls.
Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam have also stepped up screening at airports.
Nipah virus can cause fever and brain inflammation and has a high mortality rate. There is no vaccine either. But person-to-person transmission is not easy and often requires prolonged contact with an infected person.
“Strengthening prevention and surveillance measures at Pakistan’s borders has become imperative,” the Border Health Service said in a statement.
The department added that “all travelers should undergo thermal screening and clinical assessment at points of entry,” which include seaports, land borders and airports.
The agency said travelers will need to provide transit history within the past 21 days to check whether they have been to “Nipah-affected or high-risk areas.”
There are no direct flights between Pakistan and India and travel between the two countries has been extremely limited, especially since the worst fighting in decades last May.
In Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital’s health authorities on Wednesday also ordered screening of incoming passengers at Noi Bai airport, particularly from India and the eastern state of West Bengal, where two health workers were confirmed to have the virus in late December.
Passengers will be checked with temperature scanners to detect suspected cases. “This allows for timely isolation and epidemiological investigations,” the department said in a statement.
The move comes after authorities in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest city, said they had tightened health controls at international border crossings.
India’s health ministry said this week that authorities had identified and traced 196 contacts related to the two cases, none of whom developed symptoms and all tested negative for the virus.
Nipah virus is a rare viral infection that is transmitted to humans primarily from infected animals, primarily fruit bats. It can be asymptomatic but is often very dangerous, with a case fatality rate of 40 to 75 percent, depending on the local health system’s testing and management capabilities, according to the World Health Organization.
The virus was first discovered in an outbreak among pig farmers in Malaysia and Singapore 25 years ago, although scientists believe it has been circulating among fruit bats, or fruit bats, for thousands of years.
The World Health Organization lists Nipah virus as a priority pathogen. India frequently reports sporadic infections, particularly in the southern state of Kerala, which is considered one of the world’s highest risk areas for Nipah virus.
As of December 2025, 750 Nipah virus infections had been confirmed worldwide, with 415 deaths, according to the Alliance for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which is funding a vaccine trial to help stop Nipah virus.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio in Hanoi, Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore and Ananda Teresia in Jakarta; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
