Since the mode of transmission is not ascertained yet, usual hygiene practices with food, animals and with individuals with fever are all that we can do.
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According to reports from Chinese media, a new zoonotic virus called ‘Langya’ has been discovered in the country that has already affected 35 people. The new type of Henipavirus also called Langya Henipavirus or the LayV, can be transmitted from animals like shrews to humans, according to a new study titled A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China.
According to a report published in The Taipei Times, Taiwan’s Centres for Disease Control has noted that although 35 people were infected, no one has died or suffered a serious illness. The outlet also mentioned that the virus has, so far, been found in China’s Shandong and Henan provinces, and human-to-human transmission has not yet been reported.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, noted that Langya was identified in a throat swab sample from one patient by means of metagenomic analysis and subsequent virus isolation. “The genome of LayV is composed of 18,402 nucleotides with a genome organization that is identical to that of other henipaviruses.1 LayV is most phylogenetically related to Mojiang henipavirus, which was discovered in southern China,” the August 4, 2022 study stated. It further noted that among the 35 infected patients, 26 were infected with LayV only (no other pathogens were present).
Patients with acute fever (=38°C) and a history of animal exposure within one month prior to disease onset were recruited in the study conducted between April 2018 to August 2021.
Since the patients did not have close contact with each other or common exposure history, human infections might be sporadic, the study said. The authors noted that contact tracing of nine patients with 15 close-contact family members revealed “no close-contact LayV transmission, but our sample size was too small to determine the status of human-to-human transmission for LayV”.
Causes:
The study found that of the 25 species of wild small animals tested, the virus was predominantly found in shrews (27 percent) and stated it was “a finding that suggests that the shrew may be a natural reservoir of LayV”. “Nipah virus also comes from the same genus,” said Dr. Sanjith Saseedharan, consultant and head critical care, SL Raheja Hospital, Mahim-A Fortis Associate.
Symptoms:
The study stated that 26 patients presented with fever (100 percent of the patients), fatigue (54 percent), cough (50 percent), anorexia (50 percent), myalgia (46 percent), nausea (38 percent), headache (35 percent), and vomiting (35 percent), accompanied by abnormalities of thrombocytopenia (35 percent), leukopenia (54 percent), and impaired liver (35 percent) and kidney (8 percent) function.
What should we do?
According to Dr Saseedharan, “at present, there is no medicine or vaccine against this disease, and supportive care is needed”. According to Dr Shrey Kumar Srivastav, assistant professor, department of internal medicine, Sharda hospital, Greater Noida, any recent travel history of less than two weeks to China should be evaluated. “Any close contact with wild animals should be evaluated for the virus. Domestic animals are under the scanner of researchers,” he said.
Should you worry about this Virus?
Dr Saseedharan asserted that there is no need to panic “as, unlike the Nipah virus, LayV is not fatal”. “The virus is also not contagious and cannot transmit from human to human. The cases of LayV appear sporadically. The animals that are known to be responsible for animal-to-human transmission are shrews (a rat-like mammal), goats and dogs,” he said.
For other countries, it only means being very vigilant and testing any suspicious cases with the appropriate assays to diagnose the infections early, said Dr Trupti Gilada, Infectious Disease specialist, Masina Hospital. “Since the mode of transmission is not ascertained yet, usual hygiene practices with food, animals and with individuals with fever is all that we can do currently,” Dr Gilada told indianexpress.com.
Dr Srivastav mentioned that while there is no need to panic, “we have to keep ourselves protected because Nipah virus is fatal and Langya is a variant of it”.
