The Nipah outbreak caught us all by surprise. There is no denying it. There was no forewarning; nothing to suggest that something as obscure and rare as Nipah virus (NiV) encephalitis was going to hit India in 2018. The last recorded global outbreak of NiV was in Bangladesh back in 2012. India has encountered Nipah twice earlier, in 2001 and 2007. In all three instances, the death toll came up to a distressingly high 70% of all those found to be infected. That is perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the virus that was first detected in the Kozhikode district of North Kerala on the 19th of May.