Taiwan to upgrade Nipah to Category 5 notifiable disease after India outbreak
Taiwan's CDC proposed upgrading Nipah virus to Category 5, a notifiable disease requiring immediate reporting and special controls; the proposal, released Jan 16, is open for 60 days of public comment and would follow India's Nipah outbreak in West Bengal. Nipah has been under Taiwan's priority surveillance since 2018, and globally has had about 750 reported cases with roughly a 58% fatality rate. Taiwan maintains a Level 2 yellow travel alert for Kerala, India, with advisories to be updated as the outbreak evolves. Nipah spreads from bats and animals, can contaminate foods like raw coconut juice, and has limited human-to-human transmission, with symptoms ranging from mild to fatal encephalitis.