A New Era of Global Disease Emergence The International Response to Nipah Encephalitis Virus

Abstract

Since the culmination of SARS in 2003, the world has been awakened to the surreptitious and often fatal reality of viral emergence on a global scale. The WHO, as the leading governing body in global public health, has recognized the need for heightened surveillance of emerging pathogens. The Nipah Encephalitis virus, a lethal zoonotic paramyxovirus, has been identified as a source of potential pandemic disease and thus a threat to the health security of the international community as a whole. An interdisciplinary, multi-lateral approach is needed to understand the changing nature of this deadly pathogen from a microbiological to societal level, and in concert, prepare for a possible public health emergency of international concern.