Airports across Asia are tightening health checks and reviving pandemic-style passenger screening after a new cluster of Nipah virus infections was confirmed in India’s West Bengal state, prompting governments from Thailand to Taiwan to move swiftly in a bid to contain any cross-border spread of the deadly pathogen.

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Fresh Nipah Cases in India Put Region on Alert

Health authorities in West Bengal confirmed a new outbreak of Nipah virus in late January, reporting at least five infections and triggering a wave of concern across South and Southeast Asia. Regional media and state officials said more than 100 close contacts, including healthcare workers, have been identified and placed under quarantine as tracing teams fan out to track potential transmission chains.

Several of the Indian cases are believed to be connected to hospital exposure, reviving memories of previous Nipah incidents in Kerala where nosocomial spread complicated containment efforts. Specialists caution that the latest flare-up is still localized, but the combination of a high case fatality rate and the virus’s ability to jump from animals to humans and then spread between people has spurred a rapid public health response.

Indian authorities have intensified surveillance in West Bengal and neighboring states and have notified international partners under existing health security frameworks. While India has gained experience managing recurring Nipah outbreaks in Kerala in recent years, officials acknowledge that the emergence of cases in the busy, travel-linked corridor around Kolkata demands a broader regional posture.

Asian Airports Reintroduce Covid-Style Screening

Within days of the West Bengal outbreak being reported, major airports across Asia began reinstating health checks reminiscent of the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Airports in Thailand, Nepal, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates have announced enhanced entry screening for passengers arriving from eastern India and other areas flagged as higher risk.

Measures now in place include mandatory health declaration forms, temperature checks at arrival gates, and additional questioning or secondary screening for passengers who report symptoms such as fever, severe headache or respiratory distress. Some airports are deploying mobile medical teams in arrival halls to examine suspected cases and coordinate rapid transfer to designated hospitals if warranted.

Airport operators and airlines say they are working closely with national health ministries to adjust screening protocols as the situation evolves. Most stress that their goal is to filter out potentially infectious travelers without creating severe bottlenecks in passenger flows, especially at large hubs where thousands of people transit daily from the Indian subcontinent to Southeast and East Asia.

Thailand, Nepal and Taiwan Move First at the Border

Thailand has emerged among the most proactive responders. The country’s public health and aviation authorities announced comprehensive screening for all passengers arriving from West Bengal, with procedures in force at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports as well as at Phuket International Airport. Officials report that several hundred passengers per day on direct and connecting flights from Kolkata are being screened, with no Nipah infections detected to date.

Under the Thai protocol, airlines are instructed to conduct preliminary health checks at departure, barring obviously ill passengers from boarding without medical clearance. On arrival, travelers complete health declarations and pass through temperature-scanning points, while airport disease control units monitor for anyone displaying signs of acute illness. The government has also placed selected hospitals on standby to receive and isolate suspected cases.

Nepal and Taiwan have adopted similar measures targeted at flights from affected zones. In Kathmandu, airport health desks are carrying out temperature screening and basic symptom reviews, with particular attention to passengers originating in or transiting through eastern India. In Taiwan, authorities have revived a layered surveillance model drawn from their Covid-19 experience, blending electronic health declarations, on-site screening and data sharing between aviation and disease control agencies.

Indonesia and Gulf Hubs Strengthen Quarantine and Surveillance

Indonesia has announced stepped-up supervision of international arrivals at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, the country’s largest aviation gateway. Airport health quarantine officials say inbound passengers are now required to submit digital health declarations before landing, allowing authorities to flag those who report fever or other symptoms for closer review on arrival. Officials describe the new measures as a dynamic response that can be tightened or relaxed depending on how the Nipah situation in India and Bangladesh develops.

In the Gulf region, several major transit hubs serving large volumes of South Asian travelers have also enhanced health surveillance. Public health advisories issued in the United Arab Emirates urge passengers to remain alert to Nipah symptoms and to seek medical care promptly if they feel unwell after travel from affected areas. Airport clinics in some Gulf states are preparing isolation spaces and reinforcing infection control protocols to manage any suspected imported cases.

Authorities in these hubs emphasize that there is no evidence of Nipah transmission within their borders and that the risk to the general traveling public remains low. However, aviation and health officials argue that layered defense at international gateways is a cost-effective way to reduce the chances of a silent spread via asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic travelers.

Bangladesh Signals Changing, Less Predictable Virus Patterns

The renewed focus on Nipah comes as Bangladesh, historically the country most frequently affected by the virus, warns that its epidemiological patterns are shifting. The national disease control institute has reported that Nipah is no longer strictly seasonal, pointing to confirmed cases occurring outside the traditional December to April window previously associated with the harvesting and consumption of raw date palm sap.

Recent analyses shared by Bangladeshi health officials highlight additional suspected transmission routes, including bat-contaminated fruit and possibly wider environmental exposure. In 2025, the country recorded a small number of Nipah infections, but all were fatal, underscoring the virus’s lethality even when case counts are relatively low.

These findings align with risk assessments from international health agencies, which characterize Nipah as an epidemic-prone zoonotic disease with a case fatality rate that can exceed 40 percent in some outbreaks and no licensed vaccines or specific antiviral treatments available. While the overall assessed risk of global spread remains low, the combination of changing ecology, dense human populations and highly connected travel routes in South Asia is prompting governments to upgrade their readiness for sporadic flare-ups.

Travelers Face New Checks but Limited Disruption

For travelers, the most immediate impact of the Nipah-related precautions is at the airport. Passengers on flights originating in or connecting through eastern India may be asked to complete detailed health declaration forms, including questions about recent symptoms, hospital visits and contact with sick individuals. Many airports are reviving infrared temperature scanners in arrival corridors and may divert passengers with elevated readings to secondary screening zones.

So far, travel agencies and airline representatives report that the new checks are causing only minor delays, typically adding a few minutes to the arrival process. Carriers serving affected routes are issuing updated advisories, reminding passengers to arrive early for departures, carry any relevant medical documentation if they have underlying conditions, and be prepared for on-the-spot health checks.

Countries have not introduced broad travel bans or mandatory quarantines for all arrivals from India, a marked contrast with the sweeping travel restrictions seen during Covid-19. Instead, officials are focusing on targeted screening and rapid isolation of suspected cases. Tourism boards across the region continue to promote travel, while also amplifying health messaging around hygiene, food safety and prompt reporting of illness.

Nipah Virus Basics Shape Public Health Strategy

The design of these airport measures reflects the known characteristics of Nipah virus. First identified in the late 1990s, Nipah is carried primarily by fruit bats and can infect humans either directly or through intermediate animal hosts such as pigs. Infections often begin with non-specific symptoms including fever, headache and fatigue but can rapidly progress to severe respiratory disease and encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that can be fatal.

Given the lack of a cure or vaccine, public health efforts center on early detection, strict infection control in healthcare settings and widespread community education about risk behaviors. In Bangladesh, this has long meant campaigns against consuming fresh date palm sap exposed to bats. In India, recent outbreaks have pushed hospitals to review protective gear use, triage practices and isolation facilities in regions where fruit bat populations overlap with human settlements.

At the cross-border level, international health agencies advise against blanket travel restrictions but support targeted entry and exit screening in response to confirmed outbreaks. The approach being rolled out across Asian airports reflects that philosophy: keep borders open to commerce and tourism while adding layers of surveillance designed to pick up clusters before they can seed new chains of transmission.

Preparedness Lessons from Covid-19 Inform Response

The speed with which Asian airports have moved to expand Nipah screening highlights how much infrastructure and institutional memory remains from the Covid-19 era. Many hubs retained thermal scanners, digital health declaration platforms and standard operating procedures for rapid coordination between border agencies and health ministries. As a result, countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Taiwan have been able to reactivate systems within days instead of building them from scratch.

Public health experts say this is a key advantage in containing emerging infections with high impact but low case numbers. Even if only a handful of Nipah cases are detected each year, the ability to quickly plug the disease into existing surveillance, laboratory and hospital networks can reduce delays in diagnosis and isolation. It also allows for more nuanced responses, such as focusing screening on specific routes rather than imposing sweeping regional restrictions.

For travelers and the tourism industry, the challenge will be to adapt to another period of heightened health vigilance without a return to the paralysis that marked international mobility in 2020 and 2021. Industry analysts suggest that clear communication, predictable procedures at airports and visible but non-intrusive health checks can help maintain traveler confidence while governments work to keep Nipah virus outbreaks contained at their source.