Langya Virus: 35 people have been found infected with the Langya virus in China. (Representative Photo)
A zoonotic virus Langya has been reported in China, with 35 people infected so far. The new type of Henipavirus has been found in China's Shandong and Henan provinces, Taipei Times reported.
Here are five points on Langya virus:
- The virus was likely transmitted from animals to human, The Guardian said in a report, quoting scientists in Taiwan. The country's health ministry is now monitoring the spread. A correspondence about the new virus by scientists from China, Singapore and Australia has been published in New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
- Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang said that 26 of the 35 affected patients developed symptoms like fever, fatigue, cough, loss of appetite, muscle pain, nausea, headache and vomiting. They also showed a decrease in white blood cells, low platelet count, liver failure and kidney failure.
- The test results of 25 wild animal species suggest that the shrew (a small insectivorous mammal resembling a mouse) might be a natural reservoir of the Langya henipavirus, as the virus was found in 27 per cent of the shrew subjects, the CDC official said.
- There have been no deaths from "LayV", as the virus is called by scientists. Professor Wang Linfa of the Duke-NUS Medical School, a co-author of the NEJM paper, told Global Times that the LayV cases had "not been fatal or very serious" so far and that there was "no need for panic".
- Henipavirus is a category of zoonotic RNA viruses that also includes Hendra virus and Nipah virus. Hendra is believed to have originated in Australia and affects horses and humans, while Nipah has caused disease outbreaks in several countries, including India. Both the viruses are associated with high fatality rates.
