Stock Photo - Nucleocapsid of Nipah virus colorized TEM, x 168 000. Nipah virus is a RNA virus from the Paramyxoviridae family and the genus Henipavirus. Its natural reservoirs reservoirs are bats from the genus Pteropus P. hypomelanus, P. vampyrus, P. lylei, P. giganteus. In 1998, the first cases of transmission to domestic animals pigs, amplificator host then to mankind were discovered in Malaysia. The Nipah virus is at the origin of a lethal encephalitis in a man. Nipah Virus Henipavirus Paramyxoviridae RNA Virus Virus. Under a highly magnified view of 168,000x this transmission electron micrographic TEM image revealed ultrastructural details of a Nipah virus nucleocapsid, a virus which was named for the location in Malaysia where it was first isolated. As a member of the Paramyxoviridae family of viruses, Nipah virus was initially isolated in 1999 after diagnostic test had been performed upon human tissue samples acquired during an outbreak of encephalitis, and respiratory illness among adult men in Malaysia and Singapore. Among emerging viruses, Nipah virus is particularly deadly, killing up to 70 percent of the people it infects. With this high mortality rate, health officials are concerned about it potentially becoming an emerging threat as an agent of biological terrorism.