Dozens of people have contracted a new virus in China. Farmers are particularly affected. Langya henipavirus can cause liver and kidney failure, among other things.
There is no peace. After coronavirus and monkeypox, the report of another virus discovery is now making the rounds. This time it is about a newly detected henipavirus, the so-called Langya henipavirus (LayV). 35 people are said to be already ill in China. This was reported by a team of scientists from China, Singapore and Australia in the specialist magazine “New England Journal of Medicine”. The most important questions and answers about the pathogen.
What is Langya henipavirus?
LayV belongs to the group of paramyxoviruses, which includes the heyndra- and nipah virus. This is also where the name Langya henipavirus comes from. LAyV is said to be most closely related to the Mojiang virus, which was first discovered in southern China.
How many cases of Langya henipavirus infection are known?
According to this, 26 of the 35 people with the Langya henipavirus (LayV) named pathogens in the provinces of Shangdong and Henan are said to have been infected. The infections were therefore discovered between the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2021.
Where does the virus come from?
The virus is probably of animal origin. In tests in animals, the virus was mainly discovered in shrews, as the researchers around Wei Liu from the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology in Beijing report. The virus was detected in more than one in four shrews (27 percent), suggesting that the animals may be a natural reservoir of Langya henipavirus. When asked by the Tapei Times, the deputy director general of the CDC, Chuang Jen-hsiang, said that the virus was also found in the blood of five percent of the dogs tested and two percent of the goats. The virus occurs only sporadically in humans. However, further studies are necessary to better understand the pathogen and the human diseases associated with it.
What are the symptoms of LayV infection?
All those infected with LayV suffered from fever, and symptoms such as fatigue (54 percent), coughing (50 percent) and muscle pain (46 percent) also occurred. Loss of appetite 50 percent), nausea (38 percent), vomiting (35 percent) and headaches (35 percent) are also reported. In addition, a decrease in white blood cells was found in more than half of those infected (54 percent), and the number of platelets was also low in 35 percent of those affected. In some of the patients there was also evidence of liver failure (35 percent) and kidney damage (8 percent).
How dangerous is Langya henipavirus?
Professor Wang Linfa of Duke-NUS Medical School and co-author of the study told the Global Times that the LayV cases so far have been “not fatal or very serious” and that there is “no reason to panic”. How high the lethality is, i.e. the number of infected people who die from the virus, cannot yet be said. The doctor Christoph Specht also assesses the situation in an interview with RTL in a similar way. In Germany there is no reason to panic. This would require, among other things, constant human-to-human transmission. Such cases are not yet known. But that is not unthinkable. The best example of how quickly a virus adapts to the human body is the corona virus. And: LayV is extremely much more dangerous than Corona. “Corona, on the other hand, is a pet,” says Specht.
How is Langya henipavirus transmitted?
Paramyxoviruses are mainly transmitted via droplets or by inhaling aerosols containing urine. According to the report, infections with LayV mainly occurred in farmers who had previously been in close contact with animals. There was no evidence of direct human-to-human transmission. According to Chuang, the patients were not in contact with each other, nor did they share a history of exposure. Virus transmissions within families are also not known. So far, the transmissions have been purely zoonotic, i.e. from animals to humans. However, the sample size was too small to make well-founded statements about possible human-to-human transmission, according to the researchers.
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Source: Stern
