Priyanka Pulla has always been drawn to convoluted stories of disease investigations. So, when her editor at the Indian daily newspaper The Hindu asked her to report on the Nipah virus outbreak that had taken the southern state of Kerala by surprise in 2018, she quickly dove into the scientific literature, following it up with a short three-day reporting trip. Having covered several mystery disease outbreaks in the past, Pulla discovered that both the pace of the investigation and the state’s swift response to the outbreak were unusual for a country like India.