Beware of raw date juice

Date juice has been widely loved across Bangladesh. For many, winter is worthless without this sweet juice and food items prepared with it. Drinking raw date or palm sap in the morning is an old practice in rural areas. Many city dwellers travel to their village homes during the winter and one of their main attractions is to drink this juice.
Unfortunately, raw date juice can be deadly as there is a high possibility of getting infected by the Nipah virus from drinking it, as experience shows in recent years. Nipah is a life-threatening viral disease transmitted from bats to humans. Its main symptoms include fever, headache, itching, palpitation, unconsciousness and in some cases fatal breathing problems.
Experts have advised caution over drinking raw date juice as bats usually drink it from receptacles while it is being collected from the date or palm trees. As it is extremely contagious and can be passed on with minimal human contact, we can save ourselves only by ensuring that we are not drinking the raw date juice.
Badsha Faysal
Jurain, Dhaka
[email protected]