Langya, a new zoonotic virus

Almost three years after the novel coronavirus was detected in China, a new zoonotic virus has been discovered in the China’s two eastern provinces with 35 infections identified so far.

This new type of Henipavirus is also being called Langya Henipavirus or the LayV.

Henipaviruses are classified as biosafety level 4 (BSL4) pathogens.

They can cause severe illness in animals and humans, and as of now there are no licensed drugs or vaccines meant for humans.

The newly discovered virus is a “phylogenetically distinct Henipavirus”

The types of Henipaviruses that had been identified prior to this included Hendra, Nipah, Cedar, Mojiang and the Ghanaian bat virus.

According to the US CDC, the Cedar virus, Ghanaian bat virus, and Mojiang virus are not known to cause human disease.

But Hendra and Nipah infect humans and can cause fatal illness.

Symptoms: Fever, fatigue, cough, nausea, headache and vomiting. It also have seen that people suffering from Langya had impaired liver function and also kidney function impacted. The patients were accompanied by abnormalities of thrombocytopenia and leukopenia .Thrombocytopenia is low platelet count, while leukopenia means a fall in the white blood cell count, in turn reducing the body’s disease-fighting capability.

In all likelihood, the new virus has jumped from an animal to humans.

The LayV virus RNA has been predominantly found in shrews, which may be its natural hosts.

The study zeroed in on shrews after conducting a serosurvey of domestic and wild animals.

Among domestic animals, seropositivity was detected in goats and dogs.

There are no clear answers yet for the case of human-to-human transmission