Fever pitch

Image: Shutterstock

With a death toll of 15 (at the time of going to press), the Nipah virus has caused a scare. This is the third Nipah outbreak in India; West Bengal had it in 2001 and 2007. We look at a few other outbreaks in the past decades:

1994
Bubonic and pneumonic plague outbreak, with Surat as its epicentre. Caused 56 deaths and over 700 suspected cases. Created unprecedented panic, leading to global isolation and economic losses of $1.7 billion.

2003:SARS
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, an import from China. Hundreds quarantined across India, causing widespread panic. Limited number of confirmed cases.

2015: H1N1
Outbreak causes the highest number of deaths ever, killing 3,000 and affecting over 42,500. Maharashtra and Gujarat were the worst affected.

2017
Over 2,200 deaths and 38,000 cases reported—a 20-old rise from previous year. Spurt attributed to change in virus strain.