A new virus that can jump from animals to humans that have been detected in the People’s Republic of China has put health authorities on high alert after reports that at least 35 people have been infected in China’s Shandong and Henan provinces in the northeast.
Citing a recent study from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), titled “A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China,” Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control pointed out that this is the first time the Langya henipavirus (LayV) has been detected in humans.
An infectious disease is a zoonotic disease when transmitted either from animals to humans, or from humans to animals, and examples of zoonotic viruses include COVID-19 and monkeypox which most of the world is still battling.
According to the researchers who monitored the infections, LayV shares similarities with the flu, including fever, cough, headache, muscle soreness, fatigue, loss of appetite, and nausea, among other symptoms.
The World Health Organisation classifies Henipavirus as a biosafety Level 4 threat with case fatality rates ranging between 40 and 75%. According to the NEJM study, henipaviruses – typically found in bats, rodents, and shrews – can infect humans and cause fatal diseases.
According to the study’s summary, all 35 infected LayV patients reportedly had a recent history of animal exposure in eastern China, and 26 of them were said to be infected with LayV only, meaning there was no other pathogens present.
The patients weren’t in close contact and, so far, there hasn’t been human-to-human transmission of LayV though the researchers wrote that their sample size was too small to determine the precise status of human-to-human transmission for LayV.
They also noted the need for further assessments to see if LayV could have a cross-reaction with the Mojiang virus, another henipavirus that can cause lethal pneumonia.
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