Nipah virus infection - Bangladesh

Nipah virus infection - Bangladesh was recorded by Global Incident Tracker on Thursday, 18 September 2025 at 09:38 UTC. The event is classified as a epidemic incident with a severity rating of Severe, and was detected through the World Health Organization (WHO).

Between 1 January and 29 August 2025, the International Health Regulations National Focal Point (IHR NFP) for Bangladesh notified WHO of four confirmed fatal Nipah virus (NiV) infection cases, temporally unrelated, reported from four different districts across three separated geographical divisions (Barisal, Dhaka, and Rajshahi) in Bangladesh. NiV infection is a zoonotic disease transmitted to humans through infected animals (such as bats or pigs), or food contaminated with saliva, urine, and excreta of infected animals. It can also be transmitted directly from person to person through close contact with an infected person. Fruit bats or flying foxes (Pteropus species) are the natural hosts for the virus. Human NiV infection is an epidemic-prone disease that can cause severe disease in humans and animals, with a high mortality rate, and outbreaks primarily occurring in South and South

Where this happened

The incident is located in Bangladesh (Asia), whose capital is Dhaka. Historically, Bangladesh is most affected by cyclones, floods, river erosion and building collapses. You can follow every incident recorded in this country, updated live, on the Bangladesh incident tracker.

Approximate coordinates of the reported event are 23.700°, 90.400°. The marker on the map above shows this position; for news-derived reports the location reflects the place named in media coverage and may represent a district or city rather than an exact site.

Understanding epidemic events

Disease outbreaks including cholera, dengue, measles, Ebola and influenza. Outbreak trajectories depend on transmission route, population immunity and the speed of detection. Early case-finding, clean water and vaccination coverage change outcomes far more than late-stage restrictions.

How severity is rated

Global Incident Tracker rates every event on a four-step scale — Minor, Moderate, Severe and Extreme — derived from the source signal: earthquake magnitude, official GDACS alert colour, or the volume of independent media reporting for news-derived incidents. This event is currently rated Severe. Ratings can change as more information becomes available, and a rating is a monitoring signal rather than an official government assessment.

Safety guidance for epidemic situations

• Follow official case definitions and testing guidance rather than social-media claims.
• Prioritise clean water, hand hygiene and safe food handling during any outbreak.
• Keep routine vaccinations up to date; they carry most of the protective effect.
• Seek care early if you belong to a high-risk group.
• Follow only official instructions from local authorities and emergency services — this page is a monitoring record, not an emergency alert.

Data and verification

This record was generated automatically from the World Health Organization (WHO) and de-duplicated against our archive. Early reports for any incident can be revised: locations get refined, magnitudes are recalculated and impact figures change as assessments arrive. We deliberately do not publish casualty numbers unless an official source states them. The original source report is linked at the top of this page.

Keep watching the situation on our live world incident map, browse every epidemics and outbreaks we track on the Epidemic tracker, or see today's global picture on the incidents today page.

Timeline and sources

1. 9 Aug 2026, 19:57 UTC · received · event time 18 Sep 2025, 09:38 UTC
   First report Humanitarian agency report

   First recorded from World Health Organization.

   World Health Organization ↗

Times are when this site received each report, in UTC; the event time is shown where the source gave one. Copies of one syndicated story count as one report.

Conditions at the time