BANGKOK, THAILAND – Thai authorities tightened health screening at international airports to prevent the Nipah virus from entering the country from India, despite no confirmed cases domestically.
Heightened alert at major airports
At Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, special screening points were set up to subject arriving passengers from identified risk areas to closer checks. Similar measures were introduced at Chiang Mai Airport, where international travelers faced stricter controls following the recent outbreak in India.
Expert recalls origins and severity
The renowned virologist Dr. Yong Poovorawan put the situation into context, stressing that the virus had long been known to scientists.
“The Nipah virus is not a new virus. It was discovered in 1998 in Malaysia, where it claimed more than 100 lives at the time,”
said Dr. Yong Poovorawan, virologist.
He noted that the disease was considered serious and could be associated with high mortality.
Transmission routes from animals and humans
According to Dr. Yong, Nipah was a zoonosis, an infection that could pass from animals to humans. Fruit bats were described as the main reservoir, as they gnawed on fruit that could then infect people who consumed contaminated produce.
Additional transmission had been described through person‑to‑person spread via direct contact with body fluids of infected individuals, bringing food handling and close interpersonal contact into focus for prevention.
Travel warning for trips to India
The Department of Disease Control in the Ministry of Public Health said it was closely monitoring the outbreak in India, noting that many people from Thailand traveled there as tourists or pilgrims. The agency issued a clear travel warning to anyone planning a stay in India, urging them to carefully assess their health before departure and exercise extreme caution during the trip.
Personal protection advice for travelers
To reduce the risk of infection, the health authority published specific recommendations. Travelers were advised not to eat fruit with visible bite marks from animals, to avoid close contact with people who were clearly ill, and to refrain as far as possible from contact with animals that could potentially be infected.
Early response shaped by COVID-19 experience
Authorities emphasized that there was currently no Nipah outbreak in the country. Compared with the period before COVID-19, however, the health system now reacted much earlier and more decisively to new viral threats.
A front‑page report in Thairath highlighted how strongly the experiences of recent years influenced current action, with early border controls and broad public information at the center of the strategy.
Preventing silent spread through surveillance
The measures were intended to prevent any imported pathogen from spreading unnoticed. The government relied on a combination of surveillance, risk communication and individual caution on the part of travelers to keep the Nipah threat beyond Thailand’s borders.