Share on PinterestThe newly discovered Langya virus appears to be transmitted through shrews, according to preliminary research. Porpen Praditpattanachan/EyeEm/Getty ImagesResearchers discovered a new virus in eastern China that spreads through shrews.So far, 35 people have tested positive for the “Langya” virus, showing symptoms such as fever, cough and headache. Langya virus has not caused deaths in any of the patients who contracted the virus. The researchers are not sure if person-to-person transmission with the Langya virus is possible and plan to continue monitoring the situation.
Less than three years after the discovery of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, researchers found another virus spreading from animals to humans. The findings appear in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The Langya virus has been detected in nearly three dozen people in the eastern provinces of Shandong and Henan.
Zoonotic diseases occur when animals transmit germs to humans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), zoonotic diseases “are caused by harmful germs such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi.”
Some of the better known types of zoonotic viruses include West Nile virus and rabies.
Furthermore, the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, is zoonotic. The scientists found that animal-to-human transmissions took place after SARS-CoV-2 emerged. Since the end of 2019, the virus has claimed more than 6 million lives.
The new zoonotic virus discovered by researchers in China is the Langya virus, which belongs to the henipavirus genus.
San Francisco-based infectious disease expert Dr. Monica Gandhi spoke with Medical News Today and offered some insights into henipaviruses.
“A family of viruses [has] they have been classified in the genus called henipaviruses, and these are RNA viruses that occasionally cause disease in humans and are passed to humans from animals such as bats or pigs,” explained Dr. Gandhi.
Dr. Gandhi is Professor of Medicine and Associate Division Chief of the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Before discovering the Langya virus, researchers had identified five forms of henipavirus. Of the five, the CDC describes Hendra virus and Nipah virus as “highly virulent emerging pathogens causing outbreaks in humans and associated with a high case fatality rate.”
As part of a program to monitor people who developed a fever after contact with animals, authorities detected the first person with the Langya virus in late 2018.
Using a throat swab sample, the researchers discovered the new virus “through metagenomic analysis and subsequent virus isolation.”
After identifying the Langya virus, the researchers monitored samples from patients with fever following animal exposure for the next 2 years. During that time, they detected the Langya virus in another 34 people.
To determine which animal species was the source of the virus, the scientists tested various animals for the presence of the Langya virus. They found evidence of the virus in goats and dogs, but the animal that was the main source of the Langya virus was the shrew.
After finding the virus present in 27% of shrew samples, the authors write that the discovery “suggests that the shrew may be a natural reservoir of [the Langya virus].”
Shrews, which resemble mice but are an entirely different species, are small mammals found throughout the world. Shrews have spread diseases in the past, including mammarenavirus and hantavirus.
Some of the symptoms of the Langya virus include the following:
feverfatiguecoughmyalgiaheadachevomiting
Of the symptoms experienced by Langya virus patients, fever was the most frequent, with 100% of patients experiencing fever. Approximately half of the patients experienced fatigue, cough, and loss of appetite.
In addition, approximately one-third of Langya virus patients had impaired liver function and 8% of patients had impaired kidney function.
Researchers have found no evidence of person-to-person transmission of the virus at this time.
They found that none of the patients who contracted the Langya virus infected each other. Also, none of them passed it on to others in their homes.
This finding does not necessarily mean that person-to-person transmission is not taking place. The researchers noted that their sample size was too small to be sure at this point.
“Contact tracing of 9 patients with 15 close contact relatives revealed no close contact transmission of LayV, but our sample size was too small to determine the status of person-to-person transmission,” the authors wrote.
Researchers plan to continue monitoring Langya virus, and the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control reportedly plans to develop tests for Langya virus.
“This is a recently described virus in humans and more studies are needed,” said Dr. Gandhi. “However, since there was no human-to-human transmission, this virus is unlikely to be a major threat to the population and hopefully can be easily contained (by minimizing contact with animal species).”
“Furthermore, we know from other viruses in this same family that come from zoonotic or animal transmission that outbreaks are very limited and can be avoided by minimizing contact with animals,” continued Dr. Gandhi. “Therefore, this virus is unlikely to have a major impact on human populations (very different from SARS-CoV-2), but it should be monitored.”
Dr. Armand Balboni, a former staff officer at the US Army Infectious Diseases Research Institute and currently CEO of Appili Therapeutics, also spoke to MNT about the Langya virus.
Dr. Balboni noted that the new virus does not have a similar role to COVID-19, but says “we always have to be on the lookout for any new zoonotic disease.”
“While other related henipaviruses have caused severe illness and death, evidence suggests that Langya virus simply causes flu-like symptoms in infected people,” said Dr. Balboni.
While the Langya virus has not caused any deaths, Dr. Balboni mentioned that “as we have learned from COVID-19, viruses can mutate very quickly and human behavior often determines the behavior of viral outbreaks. That is why it is critical to pay attention to this outbreak now and mitigate the spread of the virus.”
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com