A new type of animal-derived Henipavirus (also called Langya henipavirus, LayV)
The virus can infect humans is found in Shandong and Henan provinces, and has so far infected 35 people in the two provinces. Source: Thepaper.cn
An international team of scientists has identified a new virus that is likely to have passed to humans after first infecting animals.
In another potential zoonotic spillover less than three years after the coronavirus pandemic began.
A peer-reviewed study published in the New England Journal of Medicine detailed the discovery of the Langya virus.
After it was observed in 35 patient samples taken from two provinces in eastern China.
Biosafety Level 4 Virus
Henipavirus can cause severe disease in animals and humans and is classified as a biosafety level 4 virus with case fatality rates between 40 and 75%, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Pointing out that this is much higher than the case fatality rate of the coronavirus.
The researchers – based in China, Singapore and Australia – found no evidence that the virus was transmitted between people, citing in part the small sample size available.
But they speculated that shrews, small mammals that eat insects, could have harbored the virus before it infects humans.
Signs and Symptoms
The researchers who participated in the study pointed out that this newly discovered Henipavirus, which may originate from animals.
It is associated with some febrile cases and that infected people show symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, anorexia, myalgia and nausea.
The first sample of Langya virus was detected in late 2018 from a farmer in Shandong province who was seeking treatment for fever.
Over a period of about two years, another 34 people were infected in Shandong and neighboring Henan, the vast majority being farmers.
Genetic sequencing of the virus then showed that the pathogen is part of the henipavirus family, which has five other known viruses.
Two are considered highly virulent and are associated with high case fatality rates, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But none of Langya’s patients died, according to the study.
The next pandemic is already coming, unless humans change the way we interact with wildlife, scientists say
Of the 35 patients, 26 were found to be infected only with the Langya virus.
All 26 had a fever, with around half showing fatigue, decreased white blood cell count and cough.
More serious symptoms include impaired kidney and liver function.
The researchers also tested 25 species of small wild animals for the Langya virus.
Transmission
Its genetic material was “mostly detected” in shrews, leading the team to suggest that small mammals are a “natural reservoir” of the virus.
Disease surveillance did not indicate sources of exposure common among those infected.
Nor did they come into close contact with one another, suggesting that human infection may have occurred in a “sporadic” fashion, the researchers wrote.
Francois Balloux, a computational systems biology professor at University College London who was not involved with the study, said the Langya virus does not appear to “look like a repeat of Covid-19 at all.
” He noted on Twitter that the new virus is far less lethal than other henipaviruses and “probably doesn’t transmit easily from human to human.”
But this finding serves “yet another reminder of the looming threat caused by the many pathogens circulating in wild and domestic animal populations that have the potential to infect humans,” Balloux added.
So far, Langya henipavirus cases haven’t been fatal or very severe, so there’s no need to panic, said Wang Linfa, a professor in the Emerging Infectious Diseases Program at Duke-NUS.
Increase in Zoonotic Infection
Medical School which participated in the study, adding that it is still cause for alarm as many viruses that exist in nature have unpredictable results when infecting humans.
Viruses that are transmitted from animals to humans are not uncommon.
According to scientists, some 70% of emerging infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic in origin, and nearly 1.7 million undiscovered viruses may exist in mammals and birds.
Hendra and Nipah viruses, two henipaviruses with high mortality rates, can be contracted through close contact with sick horses, pigs and bats.
Scientists who study zoonotic diseases warned even before the coronavirus pandemic .
They told that practices such as the unregulated wildlife trade, deforestation and urbanization have brought people closer to animals, increasing the risks of viral spread.