Public health authorities in China are on high alert following reports of the emergence of a new virus that infected dozens in the country.
According to Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control, at least 35 persons have contracted the Langya henipavirus (LayV) in China's Shandong and Henan provinces in the northeast per a report from Fox News.
A recent article from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) titled "A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China" was mentioned by the health agency.
What are the Signs of Infection?
Researchers that tracked the patients discovered that Langya Henipavirus symptoms, including fever, coughing, headaches, painful muscles, exhaustion, nausea, and loss of appetite, appear to be comparable to those of the flu.
Only LayV was found to be present in 26 out of the 35 patients, indicating that no other infections were detected.
Researchers noted: "These 26 patients presented with fever (100% of the patients), fatigue (54%), cough (50%), anorexia (50%), myalgia (46%), nausea (38%), headache (35%), and vomiting (35%), accompanied by abnormalities of thrombocytopenia (35%), leukopenia (54%), and impaired liver (35%) and kidney (8%) function."
According to the study's summary, the LayV-positive patients apparently had a "recent history of animal exposure in eastern China."
Through the use of throat swab samples that underwent "metagenomic analysis and subsequent virus isolation," healthcare experts were able to identify the new virus.
According to reports, LayV has an 18,402 nucleotide genome. Its genome organization is the same as that of other henipaviruses in the Paramyxoviridae family, also known as a family of single-stranded RNA viruses.
The virus was "predominantly detected" in shrews per a study of wild small animals, indicating that the species may be "a natural reservoir" of the virus.
There is currently no proof of Langya Henipavirus transmission from person to person, CNA reported.
Researchers said: "There was no close contact or common exposure history among the patients, which suggests that the infection in the human population may be sporadic."
The experts added the sample size was too small to determine the status of human-to-human transmission.
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The Langya henipavirus was discovered for the first time in Shandong and Henan in late 2018, according to a report from The Guardian. Only last week did experts formally identify it.
The Hendra virus and the Nipah virus are among the viruses in the same family as the genus henipavirus. It is known that these viruses can infect people and lead to deadly illnesses.
According to the World Health Organization, the Nipah virus was initially identified after an outbreak among pig farmers in Malaysia in 1999. It has been detected in Bangladesh and India too.
In previous outbreaks, 40 to 75% of infected individuals perished due to Nipah infection. It can be spread from humans to humans and from animals like pigs and bats to humans.
No Need To Panic
Professor Wang Linfa, who took part in the research and teaches at Singapore's Duke-NUS Medical School, told China's Global Times that the cases of LayV infection had not been deadly or particularly serious.
The publication cited him as stating there was no cause to fear.
According to the researchers, the fatal Mojiang henipavirus, which infected six miners in southern China in 2012, shares the most genetic similarity with LayV. In the end, three perished.
The Hendra virus was initially discovered in Australia in 1999, where it has since infected more than 70 horses in addition to seven people. Al Jazeera reported that the WHO stated all the cases occurred only along Australia's northeastern coast.
Henipavirus infections have no known cures or vaccines as of present reporting.
